A very small study in rectal cancer patients produced unprecedented results:
remission in 100% per cent of the participants. Study lead author Andrea Cercek , MD, head of the colorectal cancer section and co-director of the Center for Young Onset Colorectal and Gastrointestinal Cancers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center , New York City , defined the findings. ” unprecedented” and “exciting . ” “We have now treated a total of 14 patients and 100% have had a complete clinical response to dostarlimab alone ,” said Dr. Cercek. “No patients required chemotherapy, radiation or surgery. No relapses of the disease have been observed, although a longer follow-up is certainly necessary to establish the duration of this treatment ”. How this experimental therapy works:
In the study, patients received dostarlimab 500 mg intravenously every three weeks for six months and then underwent radiological and endoscopic evaluation. The primary endpoints of the study were the overall response rate to PD-1 block with or without chemoradiotherapy and pathologic complete response or clinical complete response rate at 12 months after PD-1 block with or without chemoradiotherapy. “I think everyone in this room will agree that the findings are clinically meaningful ,” said invited discussant Kimmie Ng , MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Colon and Rectal Cancer Center. by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in Boston:
“The 100% complete clinical response rate is unprecedented in rectal cancer and the potential to reduce morbidity by eliminating pelvic radiation and surgery for our patients is enormous.” Dr. Ng called neoadjuvant dostarlimab a ” promising new treatment for patients with stage II-III dMMR rectal cancer ,” but also reiterated the need for longer follow-up and additional patients. “These results are clinically meaningful and scientifically plausible, but more data is needed before they change practice ,” concluded Dr. Ng. Traditional colorectal treatments can have life-changing effects,NPR , Hanna Sanoff of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina, who was not involved in the study but wrote an editorial on the research. The median follow-up is only 6.8 months, Dr. Cercek said, but four patients were followed up for nearly two years and only four received less than six months of the required treatment. Of note, the researchers observed no Grade 3 or 4 events following dostarlimab treatment. The findings were published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Sources:
https://www.gastroendonews.com/Online-First/Article/06-22/Rectal-Cancer-Remission-dostarlimab/67261
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