Survival rates for a deadly type of bowel cancer could triple using a wonder drug already available on the NHS, new research suggests.
Trials found pembrolizumab, sold under the brand name Keytruda, ‘melts away’ tumours, potentially sparing patients from needing surgery and chemotherapy.
It was so effective, tests found six in ten patients had no trace of disease left months later.
Doctors say the drug – already used to treat cancers including breast, lung and cervical on the NHS – could be a ‘game-changer’ for patients with this type of bowel cancer, affecting around 3,000 Britons each year.
Researchers from University College London recruited 32 patients from five NHS hospitals with stage two or three with genetic subtype of bowel cancer, with a high number of mutations.
Around 3,000 Britons each year are affected by bowel cancer and the drug could be a ‘game-changer’ (Stock image)
The patients had stage 3 cancer, meaning thee cancer was threatening to spread outside the bowel, which currently kills one in three within five years.
They were given three doses of pembrolizumab 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 tumours had been.
Results showed 59 per cent 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 per cent were able to have their tumours 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 tumour followed by three to six months of chemotherapy.
Dr Kai-Keen Shiu, from trial leader from UCL Cancer Institute, said: ‘Immunotherapy can make tumours disappear before surgery. If you melt the cancer away before surgery you normally triple survival chances.
Using the life-changing drug could mean patients don’t need to undergo gruelling chemotherapy after surgery (Stock image)
‘If patients have a complete response to pembrolizumab it can triple your chance of survival. Patients also don’t need any chemotherapy after so they avoid all those side effects.
‘Currently the chance of surviving for three years after surgery without relapse is about 75 per cent in bowel cancer patients. We hope this treatment will get it closer to 90 to 100 per cent.’
He added: ‘We need to wait to see whether the patients in our trial remain cancer-free over a longer period of time, but initial indications are extremely positive.’
Presenting the findings at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago, researchers said patients will be monitored over the next few years to assess overall survival and relapse rates.
Professor Mark Saunders, a consultant clinical oncologist at The Christie who took part in the trial, said it was a ‘very exciting new treatment’ for these patients.
He said: ‘Immunotherapy prior to surgery could well become a ‘game-changer’ for these patients with this type of cancer. Not only is the outcome better, but it saves patients from having more conventional chemotherapy, which often has more side-effects.
‘In the future, immunotherapy may even replace the need for surgery.’
Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK, with around 42,900 cases a year.
Though still predominantly a cancer that affects older people, cases among the under 50s have been increasing in recent decades.
The drug works by stimulating the body’s immune system to fight cancer cells. It does this by targeting and blocks a protein called PD-1 on the surface of T cells, triggering them to find and kill cancer cells.
Having this treatment also meant patients did not need to undergo gruelling chemotherapy after surgery.
Dr Lisa Wilde, director of research and external affairs at Bowel Cancer UK, said: ‘The results of this trial are certainly promising for people with the right genetic variants, but additional research is needed before it could be available to patients.
‘Finding a way to repurpose existing cancer drugs like pembrolizumab to treat bowel cancer has the potential to widen the options available to patients quickly, and in a cost-effective way.’
Source: Mail Online
