Dr. Jon LaPook reports on new clinical trial findings that suggest some cancer patients could bypass chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery thanks to promising advances in immunotherapy.

In a notable advancement in cancer treatment, recent findings from an immunotherapy clinical trial suggest that some cancer patients may be able to forego traditional treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. The research, led by Dr. Andrea Sersek at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, holds promise for individuals with solid tumors. Notably, an individual with kidney cancer observed complete eradication of the tumor after six months of immunotherapy, according to the clinical trial's results.

The immunotherapy works by leveraging the body's own immune system to attack cancer cells. Dr. Jon LaPook explains that cancer cells typically find ways to evade immune responses. The new therapy removes these defense mechanisms, enabling a more effective immune system attack. This approach appears to be substantially beneficial, with 80% of trial participants requiring no further treatment beyond immunotherapy.

This clinical trial initially included individuals with rectal cancer, and now encompasses cancers of the esophagus, stomach, and urethra. Results have been particularly compelling, showing a complete resolution in early cases. While the trial does not entirely eliminate the necessity for surgery, it offers less invasive options by sufficiently shrinking tumors, thereby making surgery less severe and reducing recovery times. However, ongoing funding for such trials is crucial to sustaining research progress.



Immunotherapy breakthrough offers new hope for cancer patients

In today's Health Watch, an important update on a story we first brought you in 2022 about a promising new approach for treating certain cancers. Just this past weekend, scientists shared the latest results from an immunotherapy clinical trial that could help some cancer patients avoid toxic treatments like chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. Dr. John LaPook is here with the update. John, good morning. Good morning, Brianna. Good morning, Vlad. These results from Dr. Andrea Sersek and her team at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center expand the number of people with solid tumors who could be helped by using immunotherapy alone. Patients like Bruce Nollmeyer, who saw his kidney cancer vanish after just six months of immunotherapy. Amazing. They did a CT scan, and they came back and they said they don't see the tumor. And when you heard that, what did you think? I couldn't believe it worked that quick, to be honest. What percentage did not need any further treatment? 80% of them didn't need any further treatment. So, no surgery, no chemo, no radiation, just immunotherapy. Wow. So, for our audience who may not know what this is exactly, how does it work, immunotherapy? It's basically harnessing your immune system, right? So, a cancer cell is abnormal, and normally your immune system can recognize it. So, the immune cell comes over, it's going to attack it, and then the cancer cell has a fancy way of saying, not so fast. It puts the brakes on it. And what this antibody does, this type of therapy does, is takes the brake off so your immune system can go out and attack it and kill it. It's just stunning stuff. How big of a breakthrough is this? Is this the kind of big moment we've been waiting for in cancer research? You know, this is incremental stuff. So, people have been trying to harness the immune system for a long time. It gets better and better and better, more specific. These kind of results are absolutely unprecedented, spectacular. Two and a half years ago, we did the first report about that with Andrea, Dr. Andrea Sersak. And there were 18 people who had early rectal cancers. I'm a gastroenterologist. I'm looking at this picture of a big rectal cancer, nasty looking, that just completely melted away. 18 of 18 resolved completely. What? And in this trial, 103 people, they said, why don't we try it with other cancers, not just rectum, of the esophagus, of the stomach, and urethelial, so, you know, the kidneys. And about 80% of the people, not 100%, 80% of the people didn't need any further treatment. I was going to say, you don't need the chemo, you don't need the radiation if you're doing this immunotherapy, at least in this case. Yeah, and think about it, what that means. So even if it doesn't totally go away, if it even just shrinks the cancer, and let's say you have a cancer of the esophagus, that's big time surgery if you have to take part of the esophagus and part of the stomach. Well, if it's a lot smaller, you have a less drastic kind of surgery and people can function better afterwards. And people can avoid the chemo and the radiation, which we know is just so hard to go through and just such insult to injury when people are already battling cancer. Do we have time for another question about funding? How is, you know, funding is being threatened for trials like this, how is that going to be affected? Oh, I think, you know, you worry about this. You have a young researcher like Dr. Sursak, that type of research needs funding. And you know, the beginning of the research for this started more than 100 years ago, it doesn't just happen overnight. So you really have to support it. You look at Kelly Spill, who is our woman from two and a half years ago, she now has two kids and another one on the way around Mother's Day, and boy, that's all the reward you need. We love when you're here, Dr. LaPouf. Thank you. Really, really promising medical news. Thank you very much.

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