Cancer cured for every patient in drug trial for the first time ever

An Indian-origin patient was among those who had a “miracle” cure using a cancer medication that is being tried out by a research centre here, achieving an unprecedented healing rate when all 14 patients in the trial had their cancers disappear.

“It’s a miracle”, Nisha Varughese said about the immunotherapy drug’s efficacy in curing her.

In the trial at the Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Centre in New York using dostarlimab, “the rectal cancer disappeared after immunotherapy — without the need for the standard treatments of radiation, surgery, or chemotherapy — and the cancer has not returned in any of the patients, who have been cancer-free for up to two years,” the MSK said.

According to researchers, this was the first time that all the patients in a cancer trial were completely healed with a medication and they did not have serious side-effects.

Andrea Cercek, a cancer specialist who ran the trial, said, “The immunotherapy shrank the tumours much faster than I expected.”

Luis Diaz, who was the other researcher running the trial and is a member of the White House National Cancer Advisory Board, said, “It’s really exciting. I think this is a great step forward for patients.”

Usually, cancer is treated with chemotherapy, radiation and surgery.