Your daily adult tube feed all in one place!
Two wonder drugs that 'melt away' colon cancers in up to 100 PERCENT of patients could help halt epidemic in young people
Two wonder drugs could help fight an explosion of colon cancers in young people - and both are already approved in the US.
Both treatments are immunotherapies, which use patients' own disease-fighting white blood cells to target cancerous tumors.
Trials found pembrolizumab, sold under the brand name Keytruda, 'melts away' tumors, potentially sparing patients from needing surgery and chemotherapy.
It was so effective, tests found six in 10 patients had no trace of disease left months later. The drug is already used to treat lung and cervical cancer in America.
Meanwhile, a second, brand-new drug made by GSK was effective in 100 percent of cases of a rare form of colorectal cancer.
The above graph shows the rise of colorectal cancer in young Americans from 1999 through 2020
The findings were presented this weekend at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago this weekend.
They come as colorectal cancer rates are expected to double from 2010 to the end of the decade.
Doctors are still trying to work out what's behind the rapid rise.
Processed foods, chemical contamination and the overuse of antibiotics have all been touted as possible factors.
For the Keytruda study, researchers from University College London in England recruited 32 patients from five UK hospitals with stage two or three with a genetic subtype of colon cancer, with a high number of mutations.
The patients had stage 3 cancer, meaning thee cancer was threatening to spread outside the colon, which currently kills one in three within five years.
They were given three doses of Keytruda over nine weeks prior to surgery.
The drug is delivered via 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 drug, patients underwent surgery to remove the area of their bowel where their tumors had been.
Results showed 59 percent of patients had no trace of cancer left when tested, typically between five and 19 months later - suggesting they didn't even require surgery.
The remaining 41 percent were able to have their tumors removed, and all are now disease-free.
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, from trial leader from UCL Cancer Institute, said: 'Immunotherapy can make tumors disappear before surgery.
'If you melt the cancer away before surgery you normally triple survival chances.
The drug is currently FDA approved for lung and cervical cancers, and it is available on the UK's NHS for cervical, lung, melanoma, and triple-negative breast cancers.
The main limitation of the study was its small sample size. The team also noted that more research is needed with longer follow-up times on remission.
Additionally, immunotherapy has been shown to cost upward of $100,000 without insurance, though it is often covered by private insurance and Medicare.
Keytruda has previously shown benefits in other cancers like non-small cell lung cancer. In one trial, Keytruda after chemotherapy reduced the risk of disease progression by 42 percent compared to chemotherapy alone.
Additionally, findings presented at ASCO from Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City found that immunotherapy drug Jemperli, or dostarlimab, showed 'unprecedented results' by eviscerating all 42 patients' colorectal cancers.
All patients had locally advanced mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) rectal cancer, a form of colorectal cancer that accounts for five to 10 percent of cases.
Of the 42 patients, 24 have been followed up with after about 24 months, and none of the participants had disease recurrence. None of the patients needed chemotherapy or surgery.
Hesham Abdullah, a senior vice president at drug manufacturer GSK, said: 'The data showing no evidence of disease in 42 patients is remarkable.'
'These results bring us one step closer to understanding the potential of dostarlimab in this curative-intent setting for patients with dMMR locally advanced rectal cancer.'
Jemperli is currently FDA approved for endometrial cancer.