Survival rates from a deadly type of bowel cancer could be tripled using a wonder drug already available on the NHS, new research suggests.
Trials found that pembrolizumab, sold under the brand name Keytruda, “melts” tumors, potentially preventing patients from needing surgery and chemotherapy.
It was so effective that tests found that six out of ten patients had no trace of disease months later.
Doctors say the drug, which is already used to treat cancers such as breast, lung and cervix on the NHS, could be a “game changer” for patients with this type of bowel cancer, which affects about 3,000 Brits every year.
Researchers at University College London recruited 32 patients from five NHS hospitals with stage two or three genetic subtypes of bowel cancer, with a high number of mutations.
Around 3,000 Britons are affected by bowel cancer each year and the drug could be a game-changer (File Image)
The patients had stage 3 cancer, meaning the cancer threatened to spread outside the intestine, which currently kills one in three within five years.
They received three doses of pembrolizumab over nine weeks before surgery.
The medication is administered as a 30-minute injection into the back of the hand and stimulates the body’s immune system to fight cancer cells.
After finishing the immunotherapy medication, the patients underwent surgery to remove the area of the intestine where their tumors had been.
The results showed that 59 percent of patients had no trace of cancer left when they were tested, usually between five and 19 months later. – suggesting they didn’t even require surgery.
The remaining 41 percent could have their tumors removed and are now all free of the disease.
Doctors said this is a dramatic improvement compared to the current standard treatment, which involves surgery to remove the tumor followed by three to six months of chemotherapy.
Dr Kai-Keen Shiu, leader of the trial at the UCL Cancer Institute, said: “Immunotherapy can make tumors disappear before surgery. If you melt the cancer before surgery, you usually triple your chances.” of survival.
Use of this life-changing drug could mean patients do not need to undergo grueling chemotherapy after surgery (File Image)
‘If patients have a complete response to pembrolizumab, their chances of survival can triple. Patients also do not need chemotherapy afterwards to avoid all those side effects.
‘Currently, the probability of surviving three years after surgery without relapse is around 75 percent in patients with bowel cancer. “We hope this treatment gets it closer to 90 or 100 percent.”
He added: “We need to wait to see if the patients in our trial remain cancer-free for a longer period of time, but the initial indications are extremely positive.”
Presenting the findings at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago, the researchers said patients will be monitored over the next few years to assess overall survival and relapse rates.
Professor Mark Saunders, a consultant clinical oncologist at The Christie who was involved in the trial, said it was a “very exciting new treatment” for these patients.
He said: “Immunotherapy before surgery could well become a ‘game changer’ for these patients with this type of cancer.” Not only is the outcome better, but it also prevents patients from receiving more conventional chemotherapy, which often has more side effects.
“In the future, immunotherapy could even replace the need for surgery.”
Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK, with around 42,900 cases a year.
Although it remains a cancer predominantly affecting older people, cases among those under 50 years of age have increased in recent decades.
The medication works by stimulating the body’s immune system to fight cancer cells. It does this by attacking and blocking a protein called PD-1 on the surface of T cells, prompting them to find and destroy cancer cells.
Receiving this treatment also meant that patients did not need to undergo grueling chemotherapy after surgery.
Dr Lisa Wilde, director of research and external affairs at Bowel Cancer UK, said: “The results of this trial are certainly promising for people with the right genetic variants, but further research is needed before it can be available to patients. patients.”
“Finding a way to repurpose existing cancer drugs like pembrolizumab to treat bowel cancer has the potential to expand the options available to patients quickly and cost-effectively.”