IThe NA study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cancer Research, the researchers reported to encourage the early results of research looking into a possible way to help some cancer patients avoid surgery.
According to early study results, It was published simultaneously in New England Magazine for Medicine92 % of patients who have received immunity-based treatment only to help their immune systems reduce their tumors-and there are no surgery, which are generally considered usual treatment for them-there are no signs that can be discovered after two years.
Mourin Sidris, 71, was one of these patients. The resident of the resident in New York was diagnosed with gastroesophageal connections in 2022 after noticing that it is difficult for her to swallow and digest food. When she saw a cancer surgeon, he told her that the surgery to remove the tumor they discovered would be her best treatment option. He also informed her that she would need chemotherapy and radiation after surgery to kill as much cancer as possible. “I was afraid,” says Sidres. For a certain period after surgery, you will not be able to speak or lie down at night to sleep. Then there was chemotherapy and radiation. “There were many steps to recover.”
But based on genetics from her cancer, she was told about a study of a pioneering new approach Dr. Andrea SersecHead of Colon and Royal Cancer Department at the Memorial Celed Cancer Cancer Center. Cercek was testing whether people like Sideris could be treated with the checkpoint inhibitor, a relatively new type of cancer treatment that liberates the body’s immune cells to recognize and attack cancer cells. If the treatment succeeds, this means that Sideris may not need surgery. “Tell me that it was all experimental – are you okay with that?” I said, “Register me,” says Sideris.
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Cercek has not treated people with SIDERis cancer using this method so far. But in 2024, it was published Promotion results From a small study of people with rectal cancer, as all the 42 patients who obtained the inspection point inhibitor, Dostarlimab, became the monthly leakage free of cancer-until they remain in forgiveness after four years. Now she was studying whether the same benefit could extend to people who have different types of cancers, including colon, esophagus, stomach, urine, small intestine, uterine lining, in the case of sideris, infectious links.
According to the new results, among those who suffer from unlined cancers, 64 % have not shown any evidence of a disease remaining on photography or endoscopy tests after a year. Each of the non -rhetorical and non -rhetorical cancer patients, 92 % did not have a repetition of their cancer after two years. Even among those who have suffered from repetition, reduced treatment from the number or size of their cancers.
“The bottom line is that everyone benefited,” says Cersec. “No one has been damaged. It takes a message that treatment like this can lead to great clinical responses, tumor recycling, and significant improvement in the quality of patients’ life.”
It is the latest demonstration of immunotherapy and other new methods that doctors test to harness the immune system while avoiding harsh and most trivial treatments such as surgery and chemotherapy. And radiation. While immune treatments also come with side effects – including fatigue, rash, and in a few patients, thyroid insufficiency – they can often be controlled. For Sideris, the monthly leak for 45 minutes for nine months was “harmless. It was the easiest part of the whole thing,” she says. It continues to conduct photography studies to detect any small groups of cells or hot spots that may become cancerous; If there is any appearance, you have canceled the endoscopy.
“I see this uses an incredibly effective approach to early stage where we can use immunotherapy and with most of these tumors, replace the level of care and surgery,” says Cercek.
It plans to continue studying Sideris and other participants to determine whether the benefits are translated into a longer survival, but they believe that the results “may improve long -term results.” It also plans to study those who have not responded to immunotherapy to better understand how the benefits extend to them.
According to the results of the previous study, which included people with rectal cancer, the National Cancer Network has already included Dostarlemab in their treatment guidelines for people with specific genetic mutations that CERCEK has studied, and the American Food and Drug Administration gave the medicine provided by the GSK pharmaceutical company, Rapid track classification To treat these types of cancer. (It was already approved to treat endometrial cancers with the same genetic mutation.)
Cercek hopes to repeat the response to other types of genetically changed tumors. But it is encouraged from these recent results, in addition to the fact that many patients in the current study have cancers that exceeded the early stages and have a disease that spread to the lymph nodes. “These tumors were not super -sized,” she says. “There was definitely some of the third stage. But we have not seen any differences in the tumor stage and how patients responded. We believe that as long as there was no distant disease, or metastasis, patients can benefit.”
