Antibody medication Dostarlimab, funded by GlaxoSmithKline and tested at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, defied expectations during a recent trial (GSK).
Dostarlimab was administered to each patient three times a week for six months, as detailed in a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. MRI scans, PET scans, biopsies, endoscopic testing, and physical examinations all showed that the cancer had disappeared.
At the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting on Sunday, the findings of a new study were unveiled. The researchers found a number of shocks in their investigation. None of the patients necessitated life-altering surgery or chemotherapy, and none had clinically severe side effects from their treatment of rectal cancer.
A tiny study of cancer patients with a rare genetic signature known as mismatch repair failure, experts agreed that the findings should be replicated in larger investigations (MMRd). Locally advanced rectal cancer was also seen in these patients, but it had only progressed to the rectum and nearby lymph nodes.
This study’s findings offer “reason for great optimism,” stated Hanna Sanoff, MD, an oncologist at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill who was not involved in the research.
Reported from The New York Times say the drug costs roughly $11,000 a dosage. There is more information on ClinicalTrials.gov about the trial.
