Miracle drug could triple survival rates from deadly bowel cancer – as drug that ‘melts away’ tumors is already available on the NHS

Survival rates for a deadly form of bowel cancer could triple if you use a miracle drug already available on the NHS, new research suggests.

Research has shown that pembrolizumab, sold under the brand name Keytruda, “melts away” tumors, potentially saving patients from needing surgery and chemotherapy.

It was so effective that tests showed that six in ten patients had no trace of the disease months later.

Doctors say the drug – which is already used by the NHS to treat cancers such as breast, lung and cervical – could be a ‘game-changer’ for patients with this type of bowel cancer, which affects around 3,000 Britons every year.

Researchers from University College London recruited 32 patients from five NHS hospitals with stage two or three genetic subtypes of bowel cancer, with a high number of mutations.

The patients had stage 3 cancer, which means the cancer was in danger of spreading beyond the intestines, currently causing one in three to die within five years.

They received three doses of pembrolizumab nine weeks before surgery.

The drug is given via a 30-minute injection into the back of the hand and stimulates the body’s immune system to fight cancer cells.

After finishing the immunotherapy drug, the patients underwent surgery to remove the part of their intestine where their tumors had been.

The results showed that 59 percent of patients had no trace of cancer when tested, usually between five and 19 months later. – suggesting that surgery wasn’t even necessary.

The remaining 41 percent had their tumors removed, and all are now disease-free.

Doctors said this is a dramatic improvement compared to the current standard treatment, which involves surgery to remove the tumor followed by three to six months of chemotherapy.

Dr. Kai-Keen Shiu, research leader at UCL Cancer Institute, said: ‘Immunotherapy can help tumors disappear before surgery. Melting out the cancer before surgery normally triples the chances of survival.

Using the life-changing drug could mean patients don’t have to undergo grueling chemotherapy after surgery (Stock Image)

‘If patients have a complete response to pembrolizumab, it can triple your chance of survival. Patients do not need chemotherapy afterwards, so they avoid all those side effects.

‘Currently, the chance of surviving three years after surgery without relapse in colon cancer patients is approximately 75 percent. We hope this treatment will bring this closer to 90 to 100 percent.”

He added: ‘We have to wait and see whether the patients in our trial remain cancer-free over a longer period of time, but the early indications are extremely positive.’

Presenting the findings at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago, researchers said patients will be followed over the next few years to assess overall survival and relapse rates.

Professor Mark Saunders, a consultant clinical oncologist at The Christie who took part in the trial, said it was a ‘very exciting new treatment’ for these patients.

He said: ‘Immunotherapy before surgery could be a game-changer for these patients with this type of cancer. Not only is the outcome better, but it also spares patients the need for more conventional chemotherapy, which often has more side effects.

‘In the future, immunotherapy could even replace the need for surgery.’

Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in Britain, with around 42,900 cases each year.

Although it is still primarily a form of cancer that affects the elderly, cases among those over 50 have increased in recent decades.

The drug works by stimulating the body’s immune system to fight cancer cells. It does this by targeting and blocking a protein called PD-1 on the surface of T cells, causing them to find and kill cancer cells.

This treatment also meant that patients did not have to undergo grueling chemotherapy after surgery.

Dr. Lisa Wilde, director of research and external affairs at Bowel Cancer UK, said: ‘The results of this study are certainly promising for people with the right genetic variants, but additional research is needed before this can be available to patients.

‘Finding a way to repurpose existing cancer drugs such as pembrolizumab to treat colorectal cancer has the potential to increase the options available to patients quickly and in a cost-effective manner.’