A new immunotherapy treatment could halt the growth of colorectal cancer, which has risen to epidemic levels in young people.
Researchers in New York City found that the drug boatssilimab (BOT) shrank tumors by about 90 percent and pushed them out of the intestinal wall, reducing the chance that the cancer would spread and become terminal even if it wasn’t eradicated.
Although the research is in its early stages, the authors believe that BOT could eliminate the need for chemotherapy after surgery and fill an “unmet need” in colorectal cancer patients who otherwise do not respond to this type of treatment.
Dr. Pashtoon Kasi, director of colorectal cancer and liquid biopsy research at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, told DailyMail.com: ‘There is an increase in young patients in their 20s, 30s and 40s being diagnosed with colorectal cancer . which tend to be advanced or metastatic.
“When things spread, they usually can’t be cured, so there is an unmet need for more treatment options for our colorectal cancer patients.”
The image above shows a colorectal tumor being pushed out through the intestinal wall from the deeper layers of the colon. This makes the tumor less likely to spread and can even ‘destage’ from stage 3 to stage 1
Immunotherapy, which uses a patient’s own immune system to fight cancer, has produced “phenomenal” results in the past, Dr. Kasi said, but doesn’t work in most patients.
The patients for whom it doesn’t work are “mismatch-repair competent,” meaning their tumors are not highly mutated and do not respond to immunotherapy. About 85 percent of colorectal cancer patients are skilled at repairing mismatches.
These non-responsive tumors are considered ‘cold’, while responsive tumors are ‘hot’.
BOT, on the other hand, shows promise in these patients.
“The main focus of the study is on the unmet need for immunotherapy for patients in whom immunotherapy does not work,” said Dr. Kasi.
In the study, published Thursday in the journal Oncogeneinvestigated Dr. Kasi and his team studied 12 colorectal cancer patients aged 26 to 78 years in stages 1 to 3 of the disease, meaning the cancer had not spread to other parts of the body.
The researchers gave patients two doses of the drug via an infusion lasting 30 to 60 minutes, two weeks apart. They could then be operated on as early as a week later.
‘The treatment plan was as simple as possible. I don’t think there could be a simpler study,” said Dr. Kasi.
The researchers found that the cancer is “significantly killed by the immune cells,” Dr. Kasi said, about 80 to 90 percent. Because the research is still early, the team does not yet have an exact figure.
Surgery was not postponed in any patients and the main side effect was fever, which was more common in female participants.
In addition, the tumors began to behave unexpectedly. Normally, as colon cancer progresses, tumors progress through different layers of the colon to become more advanced and invade other organs. But with BOT, the tumors were pushed out through the intestinal wall.
“The rubbish was swept up to the door, so to speak,” Dr Kasi said.
This kept the cancer from spreading and in some cases reduced the cancer from stage 3 all the way back to stage 1.
Dr. Kasi said this could eliminate the need for chemotherapy altogether. He also believes this type of treatment could be applied to other cancers in the future.
Evan White is pictured above with his fiancée Katie Briggs and their dog Lola. The couple had started dating when Evan had cancer and became engaged when his condition stabilized. However, he died after battling the disease for four years
Marisa Maddox, pictured, was diagnosed with colon cancer at the age of 29. It has left her infertile and deprived her of the opportunity to have the big family she always wanted
The study has several limitations, including the small sample size of only 12 participants. Furthermore, the findings are preliminary and results from only two patients have been published.
The number of cases of colorectal cancer is increasing worldwide, creating an epidemic among young people.
Rates among young people are expected to double by 2030, and by the end of the decade, colorectal cancer is also expected to be the leading cause of cancer deaths in people under 50.
This is based on data from JAMA operationThis study found that colon cancer will increase by 90 percent between 2010 and 2030 in people aged 20 to 34. Rectal cancer will have increased by 124 percent in the same age group.
Cancers of the colon and rectum are the third most common type in the US and the third leading cause of death in both men and women.
The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates that approximately 153,000 cases of colorectal cancer will be discovered this year, including 19,500 among those under 50 years of age.
About 52,550 people are expected to die from the disease.
Evan White, 24, of Dallas, was one of them. Mr. White had just graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in finance when he was diagnosed with colon cancer after ignoring his main symptom — fatigue — for months.
The tumor was not noticed until it had reached stage three, meaning it had spread beyond the colon, making it much more difficult to treat.
He was on track to marry his girlfriend and move to California, but his dreams were cut short when he died after a four-year battle with the disease.
Mr White’s mother, Dana, told DailyMail.com that her then 24-year-old son’s diagnosis was “just not something you would expect for someone so young.”
Data from JAMA Surgery shows colon cancer is expected to increase by 90 percent in people ages 20 to 34
The same data shows that rectal cancer will increase by 124 percent in the youngest age group
Marisa Maddox, a paralegal, survived the disease but was robbed of the chance to have the large family she had always hoped for after a colon cancer diagnosis at age 29 left her infertile.
Experts are still working to unravel the cause of this devastating epidemic.
They often blame unhealthy diets, alcohol consumption and a sedentary lifestyle for this shift.
A study from the Cleveland Clinic suggested that eating red meat and sugar could lead to a greater chance of young people developing colorectal cancer.
However, some studies indicate otherwise.
A 2021 studyFor example, research found that patients with early cancer were less likely to be obese or smoke than their older counterparts.
a study published in April examined how being born by cesarean section affected the risk of developing early-onset colorectal cancer. The researchers found that women born by caesarean section were more likely to develop colorectal cancer in their lives than women born vaginally. There was no association between men.
Furthermore, antibiotic use has been shown to influence this risk. A study in the journal Gut found that long-term antibiotic use increased the risk of premature colon cancer. However, it was also associated with a lower risk of rectal cancer.
And one study showed that the fungus Cladosporium sp. was more common in the tumors of young patients than in older individuals.
It is still unclear how Cladosporium sp. could lead to this increase in cases, but the researchers think it could damage cell DNA. This can cause them to turn into cancer cells.
These environmental factors have a lasting impact on the gut microbiome, which experts believe may increase the risk of colorectal cancer, even if exposure is limited to early life.
Part of what makes colorectal cancer difficult to diagnose is its symptoms, which can often be attributed to other conditions. However, some are more noticeable than others.
From a study that appeared earlier this year in The New York Times magazine Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that the most commonly reported symptoms were abdominal pain, blood in the stool, diarrhea, and iron deficiency anemia.
Furthermore, a 2020 study shows Colorectal Cancer Alliance68 percent of participants said they had blood in their stool. The average age of the participants was 42 years.
The same study also found that many patients with colorectal cancer symptoms were initially misdiagnosed or rejected.
If you go a long time without a diagnosis, colorectal cancer can progress to a later stage, making it more difficult to treat.
Amid concerns about the rising rate among younger adults, the U.S. Preventive Services Taskforce lowered the screening age from 50 to 45 in 2021.
This is usually a colonoscopy, in which a camera is inserted into a person’s rectum, looking for growths or changes in the intestine.
The rest of the study results are expected to be published within a few weeks and an extensive trial is currently underway.