Is This the End of Cancer?
It looks promising
Let’s fill our feeds with some positive news today and boy did we get a big one… and oddly enough it seems like no one is talking about it. This is huge news to me as a person who had his large intestine removed due to genetic colorectal cancer. So let me spread the good news!
A small drug trial held at Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC treating rectal cancer patients has received never before seen early results. The doctors at the trial have completed the treatment on 12 patients and all 12 patients have seen a full recovery.
100% recovery rate in these 12 patients…
They all had rectal cancer that did not spread beyond the initial area, and their tumors all exhibited a mutation affecting the ability of cells to repair damage to DNA. So it wasn’t simple or at the very benign stages.
When giving a presentation on the results, Andrea Cercek M.D., stated that “The standard of care for these patients would have very likely required all 3 modalities — chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery.”
Cercek went on to highlight the first two patients to finish the trial and what their health situation looked like before and after the trial. The first person was 38-year-old woman who had a large, node-positive tumor.
“After completion of 6 months of [dostarlimab], we noted disappearance of tumor on endoscopy, and no evidence of tumor on MRI; she achieved a cCR, which was a very exciting start to the trial.”- Andrea Cercek
Yes, for those of you wondering thus far what is this miracle treatment? It’s a pill… can you imagine that?
Instead of going through the arduous and soul-sucking process of chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery you just have to take a pill for 6 months…
It’s hard to even comprehend after all the people we have seen die at the hands of cancer, and the slow death that chemotherapy brings onto families around the country and world, that we are at the phase where all you need is a pill.
It’s a beautiful thing that brought a tear to my eye in happiness and sadness. Sadness to the people who perished prior to this news, and happiness to the families who won't have to know that pain and suffering in the future.
The second patient in the trial was a 30 year old woman who was experiencing blood in her stool, and pelvic pain prior to the trial. She had a full-blown tumor in her body, causing damage… After just two doses her bowel movements normalized, the pain significantly decreased and at two months it had all but disappeared.
“Her final examination, after completion of 6 months of therapy was notable for a cCR and I’m very happy to say that this has been sustained now in follow-up for nearly 2 years.”-Andrea Merck
The second patient is what fascinates me the most, she was experiencing the painful symptoms of rectal cancer. It was there and now it isn’t… with no chemo… no radiation and no surgery. It truly does seem like a miracle that is too good to be true.
Perhaps it is, the trial is still ongoing. These are the early results, so who knows if other patients don’t have good luck and the success rate dips dramatically. Who knows if it has any horrid side effects, although as of right now all that has been reported is nauseous and fatigue. Sounds better than chemo to me.
Only time will tell how this story plays out, but this has fascinated me all day. When I read the detailed case notes, it has blown my mind. I really hope this is the beginning of a new era in medicine… one where cancer is officially eradicated or at the very least has been reduced from a death sentence to something more humanely treatable.
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