A that has been when it comes to treatments has the potential to "melt away" colorectal , effectively the cancer, doctors said at a conference — meaning the need for surgery would be eliminated. According to the , the drug, pembrolizumab, is "a type of targeted therapy drug called an immune checkpoint inhibitor (a type of immunotherapy)." Described as a monoclonal antibody, it "binds to the protein PD-1 on the surface of immune cells called T cells" and works by "keeping cancer cells from suppressing the immune system" by allowing it to kill them.
The study — which was led by researchers at University College, London, Hospital as well as the college itself as well as the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester, St. James University Hospital in Leeds, University Hospital Southampton and the University of Glasgow — examined the impact of the drug on patients who were given it instead of undergoing therapy before their surgeries to alleviate their cancers. The study found that those who were given the drug were declared cancer-free at a much higher rate than those who weren't given it.
Professor Mark Saunders, a consultant clinical oncologist at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, said the results were "really very exciting," reported. He said, "Immunotherapy prior to surgery could well become a 'gamechanger' for these patients with this type of cancer. Not only is the outcome better, but it saves patients from having more conventional chemotherapy, which often has more.
