When a person develops solid tumors in the stomach, esophagus or rectum, oncologists know how to treat them. But treatments often come with severe effects on the quality of life. It can include removal of the stomach or bladder, which is a permanent colonctomy, and radiation that makes patients hold and always from chemotherapy.
So, I tried a research group at the Memorial Celing Cancer Cancer Center, using a drug from the GSK pharmaceutical company.
The researchers started with a range of 103 people. Experience participants were from 2 to 3 percent of cancer patients with tumors that should respond to immunotherapy, a drug that overcomes the barriers that prevent the immune system from attacking cancer.
But in clinical trials, immunotherapy is not supposed to replace standard treatments. The researchers, led by Dr. Louis A. Diaz Junior and Dr. Andrea Sersec, presented DostarlebImmunotherapy medicine, on its own.
The result was amazing, and it can bring hope to a limited group of patients competing with these cancers.
In 49 patients, who suffer from rectal cancer, tumors disappeared, and after five years, they were not repeated. Carters also disappeared for 35 out of 54 patients with other cancers, including in the stomach, esophagus, liver, endometrium, urinary tract and prostate.
Of all patients 103, cancers were repeated in only five. Three additional doses of immunotherapy occurred, the frequent tumor was removed in the lymph node, and the lymph node was removed. These four patients yet have no evidence of the disease. The fifth patient had an additional immune treatment that made the tumor shrink.
Investigators reported their results on Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Cancer Research Association and in a paper Posted in New England Medicine.
“The results of the Jones Hopkins in Baltimore”.
Earlier stages of the development of the drug occurred in his laboratory, and witnessed his progress with amazement.
He said: “Twenty or 30 years ago, the idea that it can take large tumors from many different organs and treat them without surgery that appears like science fiction.” But he added that the discovery did not completely explode in the minds of researchers. Instead, he noticed that he depended on 40 years of research “starting from the very basic science.”
The reason why immunotherapy had an opportunity against these large tumors is that patient tumors have what is known as mismatch mutations in their genes that prevented them from repairing DNA damage. As a result, such tumors are set with unusual proteins indicating the immune system for their destruction. But the tumors have placed a shield prohibiting the attacks of the immune system. Immunotherapy penetrates the shield and allows the immune system to destroy tumors.
“The results show immunotherapy without chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or” valid treatment “, and it makes sense to do so.
But, at the moment, it may not be easy. The drug costs about $ 11,000 per dose, and patients need nine batches over six months. In order to obtain insurance coverage, the drug must be included in clinical instructions, and groups of recommendations for treatments produced by professional organizations.
It was approved as a treatment for uterine cancers with an unacceptable repair mutations and is included in the clinical instructions for rectal cancer, based on a previous small Ticket. Dr. Diaz said that patients with other cancers may face a problem in obtaining the medicine. Nevertheless, Memorial Celong still recruits his clinical experience, so that patients with tumors with non -identical and qualified repair mutations can get drugs.
For some patients, immunotherapy was a miracle. It can have side effects – the most common among patients in the study are fatigue, rash and itching. The rare side effects included lung infections and encephalitis.
Mourin Sidris, 71, from Aminia, New York, discovered that she had cancer after she tried to take hamburger.
“It will not decrease,” she said. There was a kind of blockage. It turns out that it was a tumor at the turn of her stomach and esophagus.
She went to Sloan Kitting in 2019. Her surgeon told her that she needed surgery, chemotherapy and radiation and that surgery would be difficult – they may have to take out a piece of her stomach and move the esophagus
But her tumor had a non -identical reform mutation, so she joined the clinical experience. The first leak was on October 14 of that year. By January, its tumor went. Mrs. Sideris has one side effect of treatment – she needs to take the drug now to improve how her kidney works. But she says it is worth paying this price to avoid hard treatment that would store it.
“It was a journey,” she said. But she added that she had previously not lost her when she agreed to the immunotherapy experience.
She said, “I still have surgery as a backup copy if it does not succeed.”
