A Drug Trial Made Cancer Vanish For The 'First Time In History' With A 100% Success Rate
A small drug trial with cancer patients has revealed some miraculous results after scientists say they rid every single person of the disease.
The trial group included only 18 patients, but the results are promising, potentially leading to bigger studies and breakthroughs in the future.
Researchers gave the drug to patients with rectal cancer, and they found that every single tumor vanished after treatment.
The treatment was so successful that the cancer was no longer detectable in physical exams, endoscopies, PET scans, or M.R.I. scans, reported the New York Times.
Doctors conducted the trial at New York City's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
For six months, participating patients had to take a drug called dostarlimab. The patients were given the drug, which costs $11,000 per dose, once every three weeks.
The drug essentially unmasks the cancer cells, allowing the body's immune system to identify, attack and destroy them.
Dr. Luis A. Diaz Jr. from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center described the trial in a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
"I believe this is the first time this has happened in the history of cancer," said Dr. Diaz.
Patients with rectal cancer usually have to go through a grueling treatment process involving chemotherapy, radiation, and often life-changing surgery that can result in urinary, bowel and sexual dysfunction.
Some patients who get the surgery even end up needing colostomy bags.
However, the early results of this trial suggest this kind of suffering might be avoidable.
Dr. Andrea Cercek, an oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who also co-authored the paper, revealed that "there were a lot of happy tears" after the results became clear.
Researchers say they were surprised not only by the success of the drug but also by the fact that no one suffered an adverse reaction from it. According to the paper, one in five patients typically suffers an adverse reaction to drugs of this kind.
Although the trial was immensely successful, it was only conducted on a small group of patients, and much larger studies are usually needed to confirm a discovery of this kind.
Dr. Hanna Sanoff of the University of North Carolina's Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center spoke to NPR and shared that although she's "incredibly optimistic." However, Sanoff also said there's a need for a more comprehensive study involving many more patients.
She shared that the success rate is not likely to remain 100% with a bigger group of people.
"What I'd really like us to do is get a bigger trial where this drug is used in a much more diverse setting to understand what the real, true response rate is going to be," said Sanoff.
"It's not going to end up being 100%. I hope I bite my tongue on that in the future, but I can't imagine it will be 100%. And so when we see what the true response rate is, that's when I think we can really do this all the time."
Total cure or not, the study does suggest that there might be a light at the end of the tunnel for people with this sort of cancer.
