FILE - Rectal Carcinoma. Abdominal X-Ray In Front View. (Photo By BSIP/UIG Via Getty Images) A small U.S. study of rectal cancer patients with a certain mutation found that every single person treated with an immunotherapy drug had their cancer "disappear" without the need for further treatment.The small study of 12 patients and counting was conducted by oncology researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York.
In every case, the rectal cancer patients went into remission after being treated with the experimental immunotherapy drug, called dostarlimab, for six months, MSK said in a statement.
Furthermore, the patients didn’t need standard treatments of radiation, surgery, or chemotherapy. The cancer, which begins in the last several inches of the large intestine, has not returned in any of the patients, who have remained cancer-free for up to two years to date.The results of the small trial were published this week in The New England Journal of Medicine and featured at the nation’s largest gathering of clinical oncologists in June 2022."It’s really exciting," MSK medical oncologist and trial leader Dr.