Promising clinical response for rectal cancer patients.
This weekend, Green Bay Oncology providers attended ASCO in Chicago where the results of a phase II trial was discussed involving patients with mismatch repair deficient locally advanced rectal cancer. These patients received treatment with PD-1 blockade, dostarlimab, and had a complete clinical response. This is exciting news for this subgroup of cancer patients.
Typically, locally advanced rectal cancer is treated with combination chemotherapy and radiation therapy followed by surgical resection. The standard approach does demonstrate a reasonable overall positive response but can have permanent effects of fertility, sexual health and bowel and bladder function. The implications of this study are quite profound and may lead to a remarkable change in our treatment approach.
The results are preliminary, and the long-term follow-up has not been completed to define if the responses are durable. However, with all these caveats, it is still quite impressive.
It encourages us to be relentless in research. Patients willing to participate in clinical trials are the hope for improving long-term survival and overall quality of life.
