Dostarlimab search queries have skyrocketed after a recent study showed how a study conducted in New York, US, supposedly cured 12 rectal cancer patients in six months.
Does Dostarlimab cure cancer?
As reported by NBC New York, Dr Luis Diaz from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in Manhattan, NY, led the six-month clinical trial backed by British pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline.
The full outcome of the Dosterlimab treatment is documented in the New England Journal of Medicine, published on Sunday. Essentially, the 12 subjects were treated with the immunotherapy drug for a specific type of rectal cancer.
The patients, according to Science Alert, had tumours with a rare genetic mutation called mismatch repair deficiency or MMRd.
“When those mutations accumulate in the tumor, they stimulate the immune system, which attacks the mutation-ridden cancer cells. We thought, ‘Let’s try it before cancer metastasizes as a first line of treatment’,” Diaz revealed.
Six months later, without chemo or radiation therapy, every patient was cured of the disease, and in Dr Diaz’s own words, “this is the first time we’ve seen anything like this in cancer treatment.”
“This in example how 30 years ago, there was laboratory research done and we are benefitting from it now. It speaks to the fact that we need more fundamental basic science,” Dr Diaz added.
It’s too early, the doctor stressed, to forge ahead with the assumption that Dosterlimab is the answer to cancer treatment. The next phase, he told NBC New York, will involve a larger group, the results of which may set a historic precedent in cancer research.
It must be noted that the trial is still ongoing with a further seven patients.
Dostarlimab, sold under the brand name Jemperli, is an immunotherapy drug generally used to treat endometrial cancer, a disease type that affects the uterus.
The clinical trial on Dostarlimab is still ongoing, and at this time, patients who’ve enrolled in the research study have reported the following side effects:
- rash;
- itching;
- fatigue; and
- nausea