“I believe this is the first time this has happened in the history of cancer.”
Listen To The Article Below
r
esults from a small cancer trial that left every patient in remission is being praised as “unprecedented” and “remarkable.”
A paper published on Sunday at The New England Journal of Medicine outlined a study of 18 rectal cancer patients who were given dostarlimab every three weeks for six months and ended up cancer-free, including the first patient who is now two years out from the trial.
“I believe this is the first time this has happened in the history of cancer,” said Dr. Luis A. Diaz Jr. said, an author of the paper, The New York Times reported.
Dr. Andrea Cercek, an oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and another author of the paper, described “a lot of happy tears” at the end of the trial.
While noting the study needs replication, Dr. Kimmie Ng, a colorectal cancer expert from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an associate professor at Harvard University, called the trial results “remarkable” and “unprecedented.”
