Cancer disappears in patients in experimental drug trial

(CMR) A small clinical trial conducted by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center found that all 14 rectal cancer patients who received an experimental immunotherapy treatment had their cancer go into remission.

All the patients reportedly had rectal cancer in a locally advanced stage, with a rare mutation called mismatch repair deficiency (MMRd).

One participant, Sascha Roth, was preparing for weeks of radiation therapy when doctors gave her the good news that she was now cancer-free.

According to a Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center report, Sascha Roth said she was “stunned and ecstatic — I was so happy.”

Dr. Cercek told Roth, then 38, that her latest tests showed no evidence of cancer after undergoing six months of treatment as the first patient in a clinical trial involving immunotherapy at MSK.

MSK explains that immunotherapy harnesses the body's own immune system as an ally against cancer. The MSK clinical trial was investigating — for the first time ever — if immunotherapy alone could beat rectal cancer that had not spread to other tissues, in a subset of patients whose tumors contain a specific genetic mutation.

In every case, rectal cancer disappeared after immunotherapy,  without the need for standard radiation, surgery, or chemotherapy treatments. The cancer has not returned in any of the patients, who have been cancer-free for up to two years, MSK reported.

“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,'” Dr. Cercek said.

Nearly two years after she began the trial and remains cancer-free, Roth continues to live a normal life, running a family-owned home-furnishing and interior design business and often speaks to people facing rectal and other cancers.

“My whole experience has been like a dream. MSK research and cancer care is simply years and years ahead of where other hospitals — even really good ones — are or should be,” she said.

Dr. Cercek said: “The most exciting part of this is that every single one of our patients has only needed immunotherapy. We haven't radiated anybody, and we haven't put anybody through surgery.”

“They have preserved normal bowel function, bladder function, sexual function, fertility. Women have their uterus and ovaries. It's remarkable,” she added.