Any piece of news that includes the words “disappearance” and “cancer” in the same sentence is good news. So the results small clinical trial recently held in the United States are a welcome wave of hope. Twelve patients with rectal cancer. They got dope immunotherapy which has previously been used in other tumors such as endometrium, but was never used with it. And the best part is that each of them saw their cancer disappear after treatment.
Six months later, there was no trace of her tumors.no MRI, no PET, no endoscopy. Neither in biopsy that they were taken. Apparently, thanks to this treatment, the cancer disappeared.
The results of the clinical trial were described with great optimism in a study published in New England Journal of Medicine. However, even with these positive data in hand, its authors remind us that it is necessary stay careful. On the one hand, because there were very few participants, and on the other, because even after six months it is still too early. cannot be ruled out cancer reappears over time. However, this is great news and gives them a great lead to continue, add new members, and complete the rest of the clinical trial phases.
Silence at checkpoints
The drug in question is called dostarlimabalthough it is sold as Jumperly. It is an immunotherapeutic drug, one of those known as inhibitors checkpoint.
These checkpoint or checkpoints are part of the immune system dedicated to not getting out of control and attacking what shouldn’t be. They mainly consist of a group of proteins that are attached to T-lymphocytes, cells of the immune system that intervene in different ways to attack foreign agents. These proteins attached to them recognize other proteins present in the body’s cells. If they recognize each other, a signal is sent turns off to T-lymphocytetelling him not to attack that cell.
Checkpoints prevent the immune system from attacking the body’s own cells, and tumor cells “use” this.
So far, so good. The problem is that tumor cells also have these proteins. In addition, they are capable over-stimulate these checkpointsso that the immune system does not attack the tumor and it can continue to multiply without problems. For this reason, many cancer therapies focus on inhibiting these checkpoints, so this is the patient’s own immune system the one who is responsible for destroying the tumor.
Jumperly, produced by a pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, is one of the drugs that act in this way. It has previously been tested with endometrial cancer, with good results. But so far it has not been tested in rectal cancer. Now, thanks to this little clinical trial, we know he was a good candidate.
Why colorectal cancer?
The area in which rectal tumors are located favors a very wide range of secondary effects associated with chemotherapy and radiation therapy. They range from digestive problems to urinary incontinence, infertility and sexual dysfunction.
For this reason, it was thought that it might be useful to resort to treatment based on immunotherapy, such as this inhibitor checkpoint. To check this, in Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York A clinical trial was started that initially involved twelve people with rectal cancer. As a common factor, they all had tumors with MMRd mutation, which is characterized by lower sensitivity to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Surgery is usually the only option, and it is not always possible to completely remove tumors.
All patients had the same mutation that made their cancer more sensitive to immunotherapy.
But they also have a positive side, namely that they more sensitive to immunotherapy. Therefore, Jumperly was expected to be effective. What wasn’t clear was that it could be so highly effective. And the fact that six months later there was no no trace of tumor none of them. Also, almost no side effects and the few reported were very mild.
it phase II clinical trials, so it’s too early to start bells on the fly. It is expected that in the next stages they will be registered minimum 30 people. It would be ideal to go even further. And, of course, the effectiveness of the treatment also needs to be tested in people with rectal cancer without the MMRd mutation. These are all the reasons for caution that we talked about at the beginning. But there are also grounds for hope. Actually many. Therefore, we can say with confidence that what these scientists have just published is great news.
Source: Hiper Textual
