Doctor behind new cancer drug that made tumors 'vanish' speaks out on why she believes it worked

The doctor behind a new drug treatment for cancer patients has spoken out about seeing "unheard of" results.

Dr. Andrea Cercek was part of the team that has made headlines around the world after their new immunotherapy drug, Dostarlimab, completely obliterated cancer in every patient involved in a small trial.

As reported by The New York Times, Dr. Cercek and the rest of her team conducted their drug trial on 14 consecutive patients with rectal cancer.

After each patient took Dostarlimab every three weeks for six months, the cancer in every one of them was undetectable by physical exam, endoscopy, PET scans, or MRI scans by the time the trial concluded. Also on the team was Dr. Luis A. Diaz, who told The Times: "I believe this is the first time this has happened in the history of cancer."

Now, in an interview with CNN, Dr. Cercek has provided her thoughts on why the drug was so successful - adding that she and her team "didn't expect" the 100% success rate they had.

Watch Dr. Cercek's interview below:

Dr. Cercek, an oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, told CNN that the results of the trial were "really what cancer doctors' dreams are made of".

She explained that Dostarlimab works by "unlocking the body's natural immune system to fight cancer".

"This type of therapy works in specific cancer cells," Dr. Cercek said, adding that the patients "lack a gene which enables them to repair their DNA, ultimately leading to mutations."

"When we give immunotherapy like Dostarlimab, it really just revs up the immune system so that it sees the cancer and gets rid of it," Dr. Cercek said. "But what's so remarkable here is that it completely eliminated the cancer, the tumors just vanished."

The cancer expert added that these sorts of results are usually only seen in around 10% of patients with advanced cancer, with Dr. Cercek describing these results as "striking".

"Our goal is to replicate this in other solid tumors such as stomach cancer, pancreas cancer, and bladder cancer that are mismatch repair deficient," she said.

Additionally, considering that rectal cancer treatments are often quite "toxic", Dr. Cercek was amazed that each of the patients "felt great" following the trial, with each having "completely normal body function".

An illustration of a cancer cell. Credit: Sebastian Kaulitzki / Alamy

The results were published in a paper for the New England Journal of Medicine.

Throughout the trial, each dose is said to have cost approximately $11,000.

Despite the promising results, other experts - such as Harvard Medical School colorectal cancer expert Dr. Kimmie Ng - have come forward to say that these "unprecedented" need to be replicated due to the trial being so small.

The paper also states that a "longer follow-up is needed to assess the duration of response".

Featured image credit: Phanie / Alamy