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A cancer drug trial in New York City resulted in total remission of the disease in all of the patients involved.
An entry in the New England Journal of Medicine reports the trial was led by doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering and backed by the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, focusing on 12 patients who were given the drug dostarlimab while in early stages of a specific cancer and having experienced a rare mutation.
The results were enough to lead other physicians to credit the study as unprecedented, including one cancer specialist who called the results "unheard-of" while speaking with the New York Times.
The journal entry in the New England Journal of Medicine stated that all 12 of the patients involved faced similar situations of rectal cancer that hadn't spread beyond the local area, as well as tumors showing a mutation that prohibited cells' ability to repair damage to DNA.
The study showed that all 12 patients who were given dostarlimab were in complete remission dispute having not undergone surgery or chemotherapy and the drug showed no severe side effects.
Doctors who discussed the study with the New York Times said the results were promising, but would need to be replicated and expanded, as it's unclear whether the dostarlimab could be useful beyond the specific scenario in the trial.