The method treats select cases of rectal cancer using only immunotherapy, which harnesses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer.
This allows some patients to skip standard of care treatment for rectal cancer which includes surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, and can have life-altering consequences including infertility, incontinence, and more.
The FDA approved the use of an immunotherapy called Jemperli (dostarlimab), made by GSK, in people with stage 2 and 3 rectal cancer whose tumours have specific genetic characteristics known as mismatch repair-deficient (MMRd) or microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H).
Lynch syndrome is the best-known inherited condition that causes MSI-H or MMRd tumors. It’s linked to a higher risk of some types of cancer. They include colon cancer, rectal cancer, uterine (endometrial) cancer, and some cancers of the urinary tract.
https://www.annalsofoncology.org/article/S0923-7534(26)08070-1/fulltext
Highlights
AZUR-1 is the first registrational study evaluating dostarlimab monotherapy in a global dMMR/MSI-H LARC population
Over 90% of patients who were treated with dostarlimab have no evidence of disease progression to date
98% of evaluable patients who achieved cCR with dostarlimab alone maintained cCR for ≥12 months with no recurrences
Composite cCR at 12 months by investigator + pCR was 76%
Results support dostarlimab monotherapy as the new standard of care for dMMR/MSI-H stage II/III LARC
