Drug that eliminates cancer in 100% of cases arrives in Brazil this year

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Dostarlimab, an experimental drug that could eliminate cancer in 100% of the cases in an American study, should be available in Brazil in August this year, according to the pharmaceutical company GSK Brasil. The drug already has approval from Anvisa.

The monoclonal antibody was used intravenously in the test to treat colorectal tumors. Within six months of taking the drug, the patients’ cancer had disappeared without needing chemotherapy or surgery. The results were presented in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In Brazil, however, the drug is released only to treat a rare type of recurrent or advanced endometrial cancer (tissue lining the inner wall of the uterus) with repair enzyme deficiency (dMMR) or high microsatellite instability (MSI-H) that has progressed during or after platinum-containing chemotherapy.

In an interview with The New York Times, oncologist Luiz Diaz Jr, one of the paper’s authors and Chief of the Division of Solid Tumor Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said the success rate of the U.S. research is unusual and may be the first time anything like this has been recorded in the entire history of cancer studies.

WHAT IS DOSTARLIMAB?

The drug is a checkpoint inhibitor monoclonal antibody designed to induce immune cells to recognize and attack cancer cells. It was first approved in the United States for use as a cancer treatment in early 2021.

Not only did the 12 people involved in the trial get rid of the disease and show no traces of cancer anywhere in their bodies, but they suffered no serious adverse effects.

The drug, which goes by the trade name Jemperli, comes in a vial, and its contents are injected intravenously (into a vein) over 30 minutes by a doctor or nurse at a medical center or infusion center.

It is usually administered once every three weeks for four cycles and then once every six weeks, according to medical protocol.