A recent trial has brought new hope to the medical field. A group of 18 patients tried a drug that resulted in an incredible outcome. Turns out the disease disappeared bringing optimism to the patients' lives.
We brought this groundbreaking news to our community so we could discuss the impacts.
This Slogging thread by Sara Pinto, Arthur Tkachenko and Mónica Freitas occurred in slogging's official #random channel, and has been edited for readability.
A small trial brings surprising news about cancer
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/05/health/rectal-cancer-checkpoint-inhibitor.html
Non-paywalled version: https://www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20220606/small-rectal-cancer-study-remission-every-patient
"It was a small trial, just 18 rectal cancer patients, every one of whom took the same drug.
But the results were astonishing. The cancer vanished in every single patient, undetectable by physical exam, endoscopy, PET scans or M.R.I. scans.
Dr. Luis A. Diaz Jr. of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, an author of a paper published Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine describing the results, which were sponsored by the drug company GlaxoSmithKline, said he knew of no other study in which a treatment completely obliterated a cancer in every patient."
"These rectal cancer patients had faced grueling treatments — chemotherapy, radiation and, most likely, life-altering surgery that could result in bowel, urinary and sexual dysfunction. Some would need colostomy bags.
They entered the study thinking that, when it was over, they would have to undergo those procedures because no one really expected their tumors to disappear.
But they got a surprise: No further treatment was necessary."
"There were a lot of happy tears,” said Dr. Andrea Cercek, an oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a co-author of the paper, which was presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology."
Mónica Freitas Limarc Ambalina Jack Boreham Arthur Tkachenko, what are your thoughts on this?
anything related to fixing/improving cancer treatment is great news.
as our nature doesn't care about fixing it - we need to fix it ourselves. Anthropologists find bones with cancer signs that have thousands of years old.
But as it's a disease of "aging people"(i.e. not connected to our reproduction) - mother nature is not interested in it 🙂
But we also need to make doing often medical check-ins like a normal habit. Like brushing tees, bathing, etc.
I was specially surprised because they don't mention "reducing". It completely vanished! If this is was the result of a trial with a small group of people, I can't wait to see how a bigger study will do
Plus, this might have been with one specific type of cancer, but I hope it opens doors to other health issues
I suppose it will be like:
plus, they published a science paper - I'm interested to see how much attention it will get and will it be possible to replicate by other doctors. Each great science paper have a lot of mentions, so it's easy to get back to this study in one year and see the numbers
Sara Pinto, this is super impressive!! And great news!! I hope they can increase testing and approve this new treatment if the results are overall positive. We need more effective, quick, and less painful/draining solutions for cancer. Patients suffer from the diagnosis, and they suffer from the treatment. So, I'm hoping this new technique proves THE solution we have been waiting for.
I can't wait to see what more they'll do with this huge milestone. Hopefully, we'll have the resources take up on this and continue exploring these better solutions. Also, I think this might shut down many conspiracy theories about trying to heal cancer
Plus, I may be over optimistic, but the results we achieved with this study might guide another studies related to to other diseases
Sara Pinto, are there any signs of this treatment working for other health conditions?
Mónica Freitas, I haven't seen any more news about this subject, but as Arthur Tkachenko said, maybe after publishing a paper about this study, their discoveries might be redirect other health studies
Sara Pinto, that'd be great. We sure could use more innovative treatments that actually work