'First time in history' during drug trial cancer disappears from patient's body

Guwahati, June 8: In what could be termed as a miraculous invention in the field of medical science, the deadly disease- cancer vanished from patient's body who underwent a clinical trial in the US.

This is for the 'first time in history' when a group of rectal cancer patients underwent an experimental treatment following which their cancer simply vanished.

As reported in the New York Times, a very small clinical trial was conducted on 18 patients who took a drug called Dostarlimab for around six months, and after over 12 months the doctors found that their cancer has disappeared.

Dr Luis A Diaz J of New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center said this was "the first time this has happened in the history of cancer".

Dostarlimab is a drug which acts as substitute antibodies in the human body, says experts.

They further informed that cancer is undetectable by physical exam; endoscopy; positron emission tomography (PET) scans or MRI scans. However, the experiment proved that Dostarlimab can be a 'potential' cure for one of the most deadly common cancers.

According to reports, the patients involved in the clinical trial earlier underwent treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, and invasive surgery that could result in bowel, urinary, and even sexual dysfunction. Moreover, the 18 patients went into the trial expecting to have to go through these as the next step. However, to their surprise, no further treatment was needed.

The findings have shocked experts around the world and they highlighted that complete remission in every single patient is "unheard-of".

It has been considered as breakthrough as not all of the patients suffered significant complications from the trial drug. However, a large scale trail is called for to understand the implications of the drug to see if it will work for more patients and if the cancers are truly in remission.

'At the time of this report, no patients had received chemoradiotherapy or undergone surgery, and no cases of progression or recurrence had been reported during follow-up,' researchers wrote in the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Sunday.