Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center conducted an experimental drug trial that provides a lot of hope in curing cancer. The research has resulted in cancer remission for all the 15 rectal cancer patients who participated after they received an experimental immunotherapy treatment, according to CBS News.
Dostarlimab is the miracle drug in question, and it exposes cancer cells to allow the immune system to destroy them. The drug was provided by GlaxoSmithKline, a pharmaceutical company. The participants were treated for six months using the treatment. No cancer was then detected in the patients after the researchers tested using a physical exam, PET scans, endoscopy, and MRI scans. Furthermore, the patients didn’t even have to deal with any serious side effects.
A dose of Dostarlimab costs $11,000
If you want to get your hands on the immunotherapy treatment known as Dostarlimab, you’ll have to remember that you need to dig deep into your wallet. One single dose costs as much as a car: $11,000.
Dr. David Agus, who’s a medical contributor at CBS News, explained:
This new treatment is a type of immunotherapy, a treatment that blocks the ‘don’t eat me’ signal on cancer cells enabling the immune system to eliminate them,
The treatment targets a subtype of rectal cancer that has the DNA repair system not working. When this system isn’t working there are more errors in proteins and the immune system recognizes these and kills the cancer cells.
During the six months of treatment, each of the patients was treated once every three weeks.
Dr. Andrea Cercek, the main investigator in the study, said, as CBS News also quotes:
It’s incredibly rewarding to get these happy tears and happy emails from the patients in this study who finish treatment and realize, ‘Oh my God, I get to keep all my normal body functions that I feared I might lose to radiation or surgery.’
The new study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
