An experimental drug cleared tumours from a dozen people with a specific type of rectal cancer, but experts say there's loads more work to be done.
Dostarlimab latches onto proteins found only on rectal cancer cells, alerting the immune system of a target it needs to attack.
And, the researchers wrote, "no cases of progression or recurrence had been reported during follow-up ".One reason the study's results are "exciting", Dr Warrier says, is it means patients may be able to avoid not only surgery, but radiation therapy as well.were part-way through the treatment regimen by the time the study was written up and published.
"In well controlled double-blind, randomised trials over the next few years, if they get the same or similar results — wacko." Whether the drug works on other types of rectal cancer, or even in people from diverse communities, isn't known yet either, Dr Sanoff wrote.