I'm back! After a hectic third year of university and both an interesting and successful research project (more on that in an upcoming post), I have more time on my hands and a lot of interesting research to discuss! I have missed working on my blog, but I have thought about how I want it to grow. Next year as I begin my master's year and join a research group, I cannot wait to update you all on what I am up to and my new venture in regards to more lab responsibility.
That being said, the most interesting research I have come across recently is by far a clinical trial of Dostarlimab, a monoclonal antibody that blocks programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1). When PD-1 is bound to PDL-1 protein, it prevents T cells from killing any cells, including cancer cells. Therefore, through blocking PD-1, this is prevented.
Dostarlimab was tested on 18 colorectal cancer patients, all of whom share a genetic mutation that prevents cells from repairing DNA damage. For 'the first time in history', as stated by one of the lead authors Dr Luis Diaz, all 18 patients were in remission following treatment and any signs of cancer had vanished. Although Dostarlimab is currently used to treat endometrial cancer, it only had a 43.5% efficacy rate in cohort A1 and a 14.1% efficacy rate in cohort A2 of endometrial cancer patients in a 2021 study by Oaknin et al.
With this being said, immunotherapy is being increasingly investigated as an effective treatment option for cancer patients, In actual fact, Scott et al determined in 2012 that it is one of the most successful therapeutic treatment options for advanced solid tumours in the 20 years before their research article was published. This recent Dostarlimab clinical trial on colorectal trial provides evidence and hope that immunotherapy may be the way forward for effective cancer treatment, although the research is limited due to the small sample size.
The oncologists that ran the Dostarlimab clinical trial.