Every Patient in Cancer Trial Goes Into Remission: “A Lot of Happy Tears”

A medical trial for treating rectal cancer has yielded a surprising, and unheard-of, result: All 18 patients who participated in the trial went into remission, with no detectable cancer cells. “I believe this is the first time this has happened in the history of cancer,” said Luis A. Diaz Jr., a doctor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who co-authored the paper describing the trial’s results in June. He told The New York Times that none of the patients had significant complications from the medication, which effectively unmasks cancer cells so the immune system can destroy them. Sascha Roth, the first patient, got her cancer diagnosis in 2019 and hasn’t required any further treatment beyond what she received during the trial. The study was quite small and will need to be replicated, but for Roth and the other 17 patients, it’s a major breakthrough. Oncologist Andrea Cercek, another co-author, said: “There were a lot of happy tears.”

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