Doctors have discovered that a new cancer treatment called immunotherapy can stop the disease in patients who are resistant to other treatments. It is possible to reverse a cancer's resistance to immunotherapy by combining it with a novel drug. They found that patients who were expected to die after exhausting all treatment options did not. More than a third of patients in the early phase 1 trial had their cancer stopped by the combination of pembrolizumab and Guadecitabine. The results are in a journal. The dual combination could become an effective new weapon against several forms of cancer. If these effects are confirmed in other patient groups and future studies, we hope that pembrolizumab could help to tackle cancer.
Thirty of the 34 cancer patients treated in the study had their tumors analysed for immune activity and cancer growth. They had pembrolizumab on the first day of every three weeks for the next three years. A range of cancers, including lung and skin cancer, have been successfully treated with Pembrolizumab. Some patients who initially benefit from it will eventually get sicker.
Dr Anna Minchom is a clinical scientist at the Institute of Cancer Research and a consultant medical oncologist at the Royal Marsden. This combination might be a way to target their cancer even after it has stopped responding to immunotherapy. The majority of the group were resistant to immunotherapy. Almost four in 10 did not get sicker after taking it. Lung cancer patients seem to benefit from the new treatment. Half of those resistant to immunotherapy had their disease controlled for more than a year.
Four years ago she was diagnosed with lung cancer and told she had a year to live, but then she received pembrolizumab for three years. She is cancer-free now.
She said that it was reassuring to know that research was underway to reverse cancer's resistance to immunotherapy. People who have developed resistance to pembrolizumab should be helped by this new drug combination.
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