All patients in this anti-cancer drug trial saw their cancer disappear, researchers say.

A small clinical trial conducted by the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center found that all patients with rectal cancer who received immunotherapy treatment ameliorated the cancer.

One of the participants, Sascha Roth, was preparing to travel to Manhattan for weeks of radiation therapy when the results came out. Memorial Sloan Kettering Said. It was then that her doctor gave her good news: she is now free of cancer.

“I talked to my family,” Ross said. New York Times.. “They didn’t believe me.”

These same notable results are 14 patients to date.The study was published on Sunday New England Journal of Medicine..All patients have locally advanced rectal cancer and rare mutations Mismatch repair deficiency (MMRd).

They were treated for six months with an immunotherapeutic drug called dostarlimab from the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, which helped fund the study. The cancer disappeared in all of them — it couldn’t be detected by physical examination, endoscopy, PET or MRI scans, the researchers said.

The cost of medicine is about $ 11,000 per dose, Times Report.. It is given to each patient every 3 weeks for 6 months and works by exposing the cancer cells so that the immune system can identify and destroy them.

“This new treatment is a form of immunotherapy that blocks the” do not eat “signals of cancer cells and allows the immune system to eliminate them,” said David, a medical contributor to CBS News. Dr. Agus explains.

“This treatment targets subtypes of rectal cancer in which the DNA repair system is not functioning. If this system is not functioning, there are more errors in the protein and the immune system recognizes them. Kills cancer cells. “

After more than 6 months of follow-up, the patient showed no signs of cancer without the need for standard surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy, and the cancer has not recurred at present. There is no cancer within 6 to 25 months after the end of the study.

“It’s amazing that every patient in a clinical trial responds to almost unprecedented medicines,” Agus added, “the role of personalized medicine: a subtype of cancer for a particular treatment rather than a treatment.” It tells us to identify. All cancers are the same. “

Another surprise from this study was that no patient suffered from serious side effects.

“Surgery and radiation have a lasting effect on fertility, sexual health, bowel and bladder function,” Dr. Andrea Selsek, medical oncologist and principal investigator for the study, told MSK. news release.. “The quality of life is significant, especially if standard of care affects childbirth potential. This approach can have a significant impact, as the incidence of rectal cancer is higher in young adults. be.”

“It’s incredibly rewarding. You can receive these happy tears and happy emails from the patients in this study who noticed after the treatment. For radiation and surgery.”

The researchers agreed that the study needed to be reproduced in larger studies, and said that smaller studies focused only on patients with rare genetic features of the tumor. However, they say that seeing complete remission in 100% of the tested patients is a very promising early signal.

Dr. Hannah K. Sanov of the University of North Carolina’s Rheinberger Comprehensive Cancer Center was not involved in the study, but said it was not yet clear if the patient had healed.

“Little is known about the time required to determine if a complete clinical response to Dosterlimab is equal to cure,” Dr. Sanov wrote. editorial Attach it to the paper.

However, she said, “these results are very optimistic.”

The study is expected to enroll approximately 30 patients, giving an overview of the safety and efficacy of Dosterlimab in this group.

“Longer follow-up is needed to assess duration of response, which is a change of practice for patients with locally advanced rectal cancer from MMRd.” Said Dr. Luis Diaz Jr., Research Co-Leader, Head of Solid Tumor Oncology at MSK.

Natacha Laruneau

Natacha Larnaud is a social TV producer on CBS News.