Israeli scientists have developed a new treatment for rectal cancer.
Researchers at the Davidoff Comprehensive Cancer Center recently conducted a study showing that the new treatment developed at the hospital helped eliminate rectal cancer in 65 percent of patients, and prevented the need for surgery in most of them.
The study, led by Professor Baruch Brenner, director of the Oncology Department and the Gastrointestinal Oncology Unit at the Davidoff Comprehensive Cancer Center at Beilinson Hospital, found that a combination of immunotherapy and the most advanced form of pre-operative chemo-radiation therapy may significantly increase the chances of curing the disease and avoiding surgery.
Preliminary results from the study found that in 65 percent of the patients the rectal tumors disappeared following the new therapeutic method and many of them did not need to undergo surgery.
The study will now be extended to a multi-center study which will be conducted in several hospitals in Israel and Germany, led by Prof. Brenner and his team.
Rectal cancer comprises some 25 percent of colon cancer cases and is usually discovered when it is in a locally advanced state, requiring multidisciplinary treatment.
In cases where the cancer has not metastasized, the treatment usually includes surgery. However, surgery to remove rectal tumors often results in severe damage to the patient’s quality of life.
“This research is very promising and can change how rectal cancer is treated globally,” Brenner said.
“The results indicate the potential of this new therapeutic approach to help get rid of the tumor in a non-surgical way which increases the patient’s quality of life once in remission. Although we are still in the research stages, evidence from this study indicates that combining immunotherapy in the preoperative treatment can indeed improve the chance of the tumor disappearing.”
The results were shared at the European Society of Medical Oncology Gastrointestinal (ESMO GI) conference recently held in Munich, Germany.
The Davidoff Comprehensive Cancer Center, which is part of Beilinson Medical Center in Petach Tikvah, is the first cancer hospital in Israel. The center treats one in every seven patients in Israel each year who are diagnosed with any type of solid or hematological cancer.
