Bowel cancer trial sees all patients disease-free in huge breakthrough

A new bowel cancer trial has resulted in overwhelmingly positive results, which could be a huge sign of things to come in the near future.

Chemotherapy has long been the preferred method of eradicating cancer from someone's body, as it has produced the best results, until now.

It looks like there is a new treatment can be carried out with even better results, with researchers proving that patients with a specific genetic profile are cancer free after surgery, in what might be a huge step for the medical world.

Realising you have bowel cancer early on could be a life-saver (Getty Stock Photo)

Bowel cancer is statistically the fourth most common cancer in the UK, with about 42,900 cases per year, and though it predominantly affects older people, cases with those aged under-50 have increased in recent years.

Similar to other types of cancer, if bowel cancer is caught early, the chances of survival are higher, as 90% of patients treated for stage one bowel cancer survive for five or more years. With stage three, however, this falls to 65% and 10% in stage four.

What's the new method?

The method is called immunotherapy and if you carry this out before the operation, it is said to have a higher success rate.

It works by helping the immune system recognise and destroy cancer cells before they get out of hand.

Pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug, was used in a clinical trial that assessed whether it could improve outcomes for patients with stage two or stage three of a type of bowel cancer.

The study

The study was carried out in collaboration with a number of British medical centres, as University College London Hospitals, Christie’s Hospital in Manchester, St James’s Hospital in Leeds, and University Hospitals in Southampton and Glasgow all playing a part.

The trial resulted in none of the patients showing any cancer signs for months after the surgery (Getty Stock Photo)

In this trial, researchers had 32 patients with stage two or three bowel cancer from five hospitals across the UK, with 10-15% of them with stage two or three bowel cancer having a particular genetic make up.

This represents approximately 2,000-3,000 cases every year in the country.

Prior to the surgery, they were not given the usual treatment of chemotherapy, but instead nine weeks of pembrolizumab before their surgery, while being monitored.

The results

This resulted in something quite outstanding, as 59% of patients had no signs of cancer after treatment with the immunotherapy, while the remaining 41% had the cancer in their body removed during surgery.

Amazingly, it meant that every patient in the trial was cancer-free following treatment, and not just that, they have remained cancer-free for months afterward.

There was also no need for post-operative chemotherapy, which can bring about some side effects, putting a mental strain on the patient.

Standard chemotherapy, when given to the patients in this specific genetic profile, results in less than five percent of patients showing no signs of cancer after treatment.

Though it only applied to patients of a specific genetic profile, it is a step in the right direction (Getty Stock Photo)

The Chief Investigator from UCLH, Dr Kai-Keen Shiu, said on the break-through: “Our results indicate that ­pembrolizumab is a safe and highly effective treatment to improve outcomes in patients with high-risk bowel cancers, increasing the chances of curing the disease at an early stage.

“We need to wait to see whether the patients in our trial remain cancer-free over a longer period of time, but initial indications are extremely positive.”

Professor Mark Saunders, a Consultant Clinical Oncologist at The Christie, also shared his opinion, while remaining cautious about these early signs: “In the future, immunotherapy may even replace the need for surgery.

“However, more trials are needed to confirm these exciting early results.”