In June 2022, the New York Times published an article about a remarkable cancer study.

All 18 people in the study had their tumors melt away. A 100% response rate.

They are still being monitored, but as of right now, the cancer has not returned. They have avoided surgery and chemotherapy completely.

The patients in this study had a number of things in common:

- They all had been recently diagnosed with rectal cancer
- They all had not yet received treatment
- They all had  MSI-H/MMR (we cover what this is)
- They all received a Checkpoint Inhibitor drug on the trial
- This trial will likely lead to other clinical trials like it for other cancer types.

Listen as we talk about what this could mean for other cancer patients.  

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HELPFUL LINKS

New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/05/he...

‍New England Journal of Medicine Study: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056...

‍Clinical Trial (NCT04165772): https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/N...

‍Drug (dostarlimab): https://go.drugbank.com/drugs/DB15627

‍Category of Drug (immune checkpoint inhibitor): https://go.drugbank.com/categories/DB...

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VIDEO CHAPTERS

‍0:00 Intro

‍0:41 The Rise of Immunotherapy and Checkpoint Inhibitors

‍4:26 The Patients on the Study (Focus on Genetics)

‍6:10 What is MSI-High (or microsatellite instability) and how do you find out if you have it?

‍12:38 What is tumor sequencing (nextgen sequencing) and how do you get it?

‍15:35 Genetics and Genomics

‍19:12 Considering Immunotherapies Earlier (one step earlier than adjuvant therapy) - the surprising finding.

‍22:35 Dostarlimab (PD-L1Checkpoint Inhibitor) - what is worked and how do talk to your doctor about this class of drug.

‍27:29 What Does Sagely Health Do?