Cancer trial achieves an incredible 100% remission rate for all participant

July10, 2023

Immunotherapy alone has successfully beaten rectal cancer in a clinical trial involving 14 patients. This groundbreaking research is the first to investigate whether immunotherapy can beat rectal cancer that has not spread to other tissues in a subset of patients whose tumor contains a specific genetic mutation.

The clinical trial, run by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York, achieved a 100% remission rate, with all patients experiencing a complete disappearance of the cancer after immunotherapy. The cancer has not returned in any of the patients who have been cancer-free for up to two years.

This trial is significant because it paves the way for immunotherapy to be used as a first-line treatment for certain types of rectal cancer, potentially sparing patients from the debilitating side effects of standard treatments of radiation, surgery, or chemotherapy. The findings were published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The patients in the trial had tumors with a specific genetic makeup known as mismatch repair-deficient (MMRd) or microsatellite instability (MSI). MMRd tumors develop a defect in their ability to repair certain types of mutations that occur in cells. When those mutations accumulate in the tumor, they stimulate the immune system, which attacks the mutation-ridden cancer cells.

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