Cancer treatment shows 100% success

The world may soon be able to get rid of a dreaded disease that is feared for the sheer number of lives it claims — cancer. For the first time, a drug trial has shown 100% eradication of cancer in patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, US. According to experts, this is the first in the history of medical science.

The trial, albeit small in scale, has brought hopes that cancer can be removed completely without going through long and painful chemotherapy sessions or surgeries. According to The New York Times, the drug — dostarlimab — was administered to 12 rectal cancer patients, who seemed to have recovered completely as the disease could not be detected by physical exam, endoscopy, positron emission tomography (PET) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.

The patients had almost given up hopes after failing to recover after going through grueling chemotherapy and radiation sessions. Some of them even underwent “life-altering” surgeries, resulting in bowel, urinary, and sexual dysfunction. Some of them even had to use colostomy bags.

Not expecting their cancerous tumors to subside, they agreed to be part of the trial. They even expected their current treatment modes to continue. But to their pleasant surprise, they were taken off the painful chemotherapy and radiation sessions and also told that there would be no need to go under the knife.

Breast cancer accounted for most of the new cases (2.26 million) while lung cancer came in a close second (2.21 million), followed by colon and rectum cancer patients (1.93 million) in 2020. If further trials on a larger scale show similar results, we could be heading towards a cancer-free world.

Another surprise in store for the patients was the complete absence of significant post-treatment complications, which are usually associated with other forms of cancer treatment. Moreover, there were no signs of recurrence of cancer in the patients until 25 months from the end of the trial.

The drug, if approved for mass use in future, is not going to come cheap as the trial doses cost $11,000 each or nearly Rs 8.55 lakh per dose.

However the results were astonishing and have ushered in hope for billions across the globe.