Cancer Treatment

Dr. Cercek conveyed the excitement her team felt as the first patients improved beyond expectations. “We were obviously beyond thrilled,” she said. “We’ve now treated a total of 14 patients, and all—100%—have had a clinical complete response to dostarlimab alone…. No patients have required chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery. There were no grade 3 or 4 events. There have been no disease recurrences observed. The 100% clinical complete response rate is unprecedented in rectal cancer, and the potential to decrease morbidity by eliminating pelvic radiation and surgery for our patients is huge,” said Kimmie Ng, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Co-Director of the Colon and Rectal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.