Promising clinical trial goes viral; experts urge caution

You may have seen the social media posts over the past few months — cancer patients “cured of the disease” and a drug trial with “100 percent success.”

But is it true? Yes and no.

A small trial for an immunotherapy drug called dostarlimab yielded astonishing results for cancer researchers at New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). Eighteen bowel cancer patients were treated with an immunotherapy drug called dostarlimab with no additional surgery or chemotherapy. All of the patients had tumors with a specific genetic feature known as mismatch repair-deficient (MMRd). After six months, all 18 patients went into remission, according to Prevention.

A 100 percent remission rate is unheard of in the world of cancer research, but social media users should be aware that remission isn’t the same as a cure. According to the National Cancer Institute, remission only means the reduction or elimination of the signs and symptoms of cancer. Cancer is only considered cured when no traces of cancer remain, and it will never come back.

More time is needed before researchers can determine if the cancer is truly gone, says oncologist Tom George, M.D., in an interview with WCNC Charlotte. But he remains cautiously optimistic about treating bowel cancer patients without surgery in the future with immunotherapy and other newer medications.

Immunotherapy drugs like dostarlimab are called immune checkpoint inhibitors, which don’t attack cancer directly and instead marshal the immune system to act against cancer cells, according to National Public Radio. For years, immune checkpoint inhibitors have been used to treat some other cancers, including melanoma.

According to WCNC, MSKCC researchers are studying whether immunotherapy can be used to treat other cancers with MMRd tumors.