Every year, more than 15 million people are diagnosed with cancer all over the world, more than half of which die. India adds more than 11 lakh patients to the list every year, and around 8 lakh people die from the deadly disease every year, as per data from the National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research.
Since there was no cure discovered for the disease, Cancer became the leading cause of death worldwide. But, not anymore as for the first time in medical history, the cure for cancer has been found.
Dostarlimab- a miracle drug for cancer
According to New York Times, 18 patients took a drug called Dostarlimab for around six months, in a clinical trial, and every one of them witnessed their tumours disappear.
Dostarlimab is a drug with laboratory-produced molecules that act as substitute antibodies in the human body. All 18 patients suffering from rectal cancer were given the same drug and what transpired later was nothing but a miracle. Cancer was completely obliterated in every patient which was proved when it was undetectable “through physical exam; endoscopy; positron emission tomography or PET scans or MRI scans.”
Dostarlimab works by “unmasking” cancer cells, further helping the immune system identify and destroy them.
Dr Luis A. Diaz Jr. of New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center said this was “the first time this has happened in the history of cancer”.
The development has left the medical world with misty eyes as it is a momentous achievement. Speaking to the media, Dr Alan P. Venook, who is a colorectal cancer specialist at the University of California, said that “the complete remission in every single patient is unheard-of”. He also noted that “it was especially impressive as not all of the patients suffered significant complications from the trial drug.”
Notably, the 18 patients who were given the drug, were battling rectal cancer at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, US. Patients, after the trial, showed a complete absence of significant post-treatment complications and no signs of recurrence of cancer in the patients until 25 months from the end of the trial were found.
However, the drug, if approved, will not be cheap as the trial doses cost $11,000 each or nearly Rs 8.55 lakh per dose. Moreover, Dr Hanna K Sanoff of the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, said it is not clear if the patients are fully cured, despite the results being “compelling”.
“Very little is known about the duration of time needed to find out whether a complete clinical response to Dostarlimab equates to cure,” Sanoff wrote in an editorial accompanying the paper.
A ray of hope
It is pertinent to note that for the first time, “a drug trial has shown 100% eradication of cancer in patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, US.”
The patients were highly doubtful whether they will survive as there were no signs of recovery even after going through gruelling chemotherapy and radiation sessions. Some of them even underwent “life-altering” surgeries, resulting in bowel, urinary, and sexual dysfunction.
But to their pleasant surprise, after the trial, they got rid of the painful chemotherapy and radiation sessions.
Key facts about Cancer
- Cancer is the rapid creation of abnormal cells that grow beyond their usual boundaries, leading them to invade adjoining parts of the body and spread to other organs.
- The most common new cases in 2020 were breast (2.26 million cases), lung (2.21 million cases), colon and rectum (1.93 million cases), prostate (1.41 million cases), skin (non-melanoma) (1.20 million cases)and stomach (1.09 million cases).
- The most common causes of cancer death in 2020 were lung (1.80 million deaths), colon and rectum (916 000 deaths), liver (830 000 deaths), stomach (769 000 deaths) and breast (685 000 deaths).
- Cancer arises from the transformation of normal cells into tumour cells in a multi-stage process that generally progresses from a pre-cancerous lesion to a malignant tumour.
- Tobacco use, alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and air pollution are risk factors for cancer and other noncommunicable diseases.
- As per the WHO website, “In 2017, the World Health Assembly passed the Resolution Cancer prevention and control in the context of an integrated approach (WHA70.12) that urges governments and WHO to accelerate action to achieve the targets specified in the Global Action Plan for the prevention and control of NCDs 2013-2020 and the 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development to reduce premature mortality from cancer.”
However, the recent development has come as a huge relief as it seems that the world will now be able to get rid of a dreaded disease that is feared for the sheer number of lives it takes.
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