A team of scientists in Britain have discovered a new cancer treatment that can shrink tumors in terminally ill patients, the Guardian newspaper reported.
According to the newspaper, the combination of the two immunotherapy drugs, nivolumab and ipilimumab, led to a decrease in the size of tumors in patients with head and neck cancer who had chronic diseases, and in some cases even the cancer had completely disappeared, to the astonishment of doctors.
The study involved researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research in London (ICR), the Royal Marsden Hospital, which specializes in the treatment of cancer, and from the National Health Authority Trust in England.
Experts believe that the combination of the two immunotherapy drugs could prove to be an effective new weapon against several forms of advanced cancer, while previous results of the combination of immunotherapy drugs indicated similar benefits for patients with kidney, skin and intestinal cancers who have reached a very advanced stage of the disease.
In addition to boosting patients' long-term survival chances, the side effects from immunotherapy are far fewer, the scientists said, compared to the often grueling repercussions of "high-dose chemotherapy," which is defined as the standard treatment given to many patients. Patients with advanced stages of cancer.
The results of phase III trials, which included nearly 1,000 patients with advanced head and neck cancer, were statistically significant, with some patients living months or years longer than expected and experiencing fewer side effects. And they experience fewer side effects.
Professor Christian Helen, chief executive of the Institute of Cancer Research, said the findings were promising, adding: "Smarter and gentler immunotherapies can bring significant benefits to patients."
About 12,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with head and neck cancer each year and many of them are in the advanced stages, which, according to some doctors, underscores the urgent need for better, less harmful treatments to help them survive longer.
The trial results showed that the combination immunotherapy had a higher success rate in patients whose tumors contained high levels of an immune marker called PD-L1, and these patients lived an average of three months longer than those who underwent chemotherapy.
The median survival for these patients was 17.6 months, the highest ever reported in this group of patients.
The researchers said they hope future results of an upcoming trial will demonstrate additional benefits of the treatment in patients with advanced head and neck cancer.
"Despite the lack of statistical significance, these findings are clinically significant," said Professor Kevin Harrington, Professor of Biological Cancer Therapies at the Institute of Cancer Research and a consultant clinical oncologist at Marsden Hospital and co-author of the research.
"We will need a longer follow-up procedure to see if we can demonstrate a survival benefit for all patients in the trial."
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