Doctors are hailing pembrolizumab as a potential “gamechanger” in the fight against bowel cancer, with findings suggesting it could significantly increase the chances of curing the disease and potentially replace the need for surgery.
Pembrolizumab, a groundbreaking immunotherapy drug, targets and blocks specific proteins on immune cells, enabling them to seek out and destroy cancer cells. Administering the drug before surgery instead of chemotherapy led to a remarkable increase in patients being declared cancer-free, according to a recent clinical trial presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
Led by multiple institutions including University College London and the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, the trial involved 32 patients with stage two or three bowel cancer and a specific genetic profile. Results revealed that 59% of patients showed no signs of cancer after treatment with pembrolizumab, and all patients were cancer-free after the trial.
Dr. Kai-Keen Shiu, the trial’s chief investigator, emphasized the potential of pembrolizumab to improve outcomes in high-risk bowel cancers and increase the likelihood of curing the disease at an early stage. The trial’s success suggests that pembrolizumab could triple survival chances for patients, potentially sparing them from post-operative chemotherapy and its associated side effects.
While further research is needed to assess pembrolizumab’s long-term efficacy, initial results are highly encouraging. Dr. Marnix Jansen, a clinician scientist at the UCL Cancer Institute, anticipates that if subsequent trials yield similar success, pembrolizumab could become a standard treatment within a few years.
The trial’s findings offer hope for patients with bowel cancer and underscore the transformative potential of immunotherapy in cancer treatment.