Medical researchers have discovered how effective a new drug that treats colorectal cancer is, as virtually every member of a clinical trial got cured.
The drug is Dostartlimab, a monoclonal antibody drug, which exceeded expectations in a recent trial that was run by Memorial Slon Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The trial was sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the pharmaceutical giant.
Doctors were unable to find signs of cancer in the body of each of the 18 participants in the trial who had their disease go into complete remission one year after the trial’s completion.
While the trial was small, it is considered game-changing and sets up the drug as a potential cure for one of the most dangerous common cancers known
What you should know
The treatment is for those with tumours of a specific genetic makeup known as mismatch repair-deficient (MMRd) or microsatellite instability (MSI).
- Patients in the study received monoclonal antibody treatments every three weeks for six months
- The 18 patients who took part in the trial had gone through chemotherapy, risky surgeries, and other treatments for colorectal cancer before the trial.
- The drug works by ‘unmasking’ cancer cells that are hiding, allowing the immune system to identify and destroy them.
- After following up with patients 12 months later, researchers noticed that the cancer had seemingly vanished from their bodies, with the medical staff unable to find signs of tumours with any of the available screening methods. Thereafter, no further treatments were required.
- At present, a total of 12 patients have completed the treatment and undergone at least six months of follow-up.
- In the meantime, the positive results have only been seen in those 12 patients so far (the trial is ongoing)
- The cost of the treatment is about $11,000 per dose
What this means
- Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide as new cases, and deaths from the disease keep rising.
- According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for the Research on Cancer, Nigeria is currently estimated to have 233,911 cancer cases, with 124,815 new cases and 78,899 cancer deaths yearly from its population of over 200 million people.
- Studies show that if the current trend is maintained, the cancer burden in Africa is projected to double from 1,055,172 new cancer cases in 2018 to 2,123,245 by 2040.
- Colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence and mortality is gradually rising in sub-Saharan Africa.
- CRC is now the 4th most common cancer in the World Health Organization-Africa region. This rising burden is reflected in Nigeria, where more than half of the patients die within one year of diagnosis.
- It is approximated that 49,190 colorectal deaths occurred in Nigeria in 2016. Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in Nigerian men (after prostate and liver cancer) and the fourth most common cancer in Nigerian women (after breast, cervical, and liver cancer).
- The cost of Dostartlimab is, however, expensive for the 72% of Nigerians who pay out-of-pocket for health care.
- This is rather high compared to 45% in Ghana and 8% in Kenya, where most of the costs are covered by the country’s health insurance scheme.
- Unlike Nigeria, Ghana’s health insurance scheme covers the treatment of most types of cancer.
- “Cancer treatment is terribly expensive,” said former Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) President Dr. Francis Adedayo Faduyile. “It is out of the reach of anybody. I pray that I don’t have cancer because, even as a doctor, I will not be able to fund it.”
When Dostartlimab becomes available in Nigeria, it is hoped that the Nigerian government will subsidize the cost of cancer treatment and ensure that more funds are available to finance it, perhaps through the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
