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'First Time In History': Cancer Vanishes From Every Patient During US's Experimental Drug Trial
Writer: Shiva Chaudhary
A post-graduate in Journalism and Mass Communication with relevant skills, specialising in content editing & writing. I believe in the precise dissemination of information based on facts to the public.
Others/World, 8 Jun 2022 9:41 AM GMT
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Creatives : Shiva Chaudhary
A post-graduate in Journalism and Mass Communication with relevant skills, specialising in content editing & writing. I believe in the precise dissemination of information based on facts to the public.
A drug called 'Dostarlimab' was administered to 18 patients for around six months. At the end of the trial, all the patients saw their tumours had disappeared and could not be detected.
A small group of people diagnosed with rectal cancer just experienced something miraculous as their cancer vanished after undergoing an experimental treatment. For the first time in history, a drug trial has garnered 100 per cent eradication of cancer in patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) of Manhattan in New York City, US.
Dostarlimab: The Drug
According to New York Times, a drug called 'Dostarlimab' was administered to 18 patients for around six months. At the end of the trial, all the patients saw their tumours had disappeared and could not be detected by physical exam, endoscopy, positron emission tomography (PET), or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.
Dostarlimab is a drug with laboratory-produced molecules that work as alternate antibodies in the human body.
First Time In History
Dr Luis A Diaz Jr of MSKCC said in a recent paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine that he was not aware of any other study in which a treatment "completely obliterated cancer in every patient". He said, "I believe this is the first time this has happened in the history of cancer," quoted India Today.
Experimental Treatment
The patients who participated in the drug trial had almost given up hopes after failing to recover after going through gruelling previous treatments to obliterate their cancer, such as chemotherapy, radiation and "life-altering" surgeries which resulted in the bowel, urinary, and sexual dysfunction.
Not envisioning their tumours to subside, the 18 patients underwent experimental treatment using the drug Dostarlimab. They expected to have to go through these as the next step to their current treatment.
Result Of The Clinical Trial
To the pleasant surprise of the participants, they no more needed further treatment and were taken off the agonising chemotherapy, radiation sessions or surgeries.
Another positive result for the patients was the total absence of post-treatment complications, usually associated with other forms of cancer treatment. Also, there were no signs of cancer recurrence in the patients until 25 months from the conclusion of the clinical trial, sponsored by the drug company GlaxoSmithKline.
Moment Of Joy
Dr Andrea Cercek, an oncologist at MSKCC and a co-author of the paper, described the moment of joy of the drug trial after the patients found out they were cancer-free. She said, "There were a lot of happy tears," reported NDTV.
Now, the cancer researchers who reviewed the drug stated that the treatment looks promising, but a larger-scale trial is required to see if it will work for more patients and if the deadly disease is genuinely in remission.
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