Wonder drug stuns doctors by whacking skin cancer

A BREAKTHROUGH drug has saved almost half of terminal patients treated in a trial, with moves now underway to fast-track the treatment.

A BREAKTHROUGH drug has stunned cancer doctors after almost half the terminal patients treated in a trial were saved.

Patients with an advanced and common form of skin cancer who presently have no treatment options may soon be offered a lifeline after Cemiplimab was shown to significantly remove tumours in more than 47 per cent of patients.

Results of the study by the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre are striking.

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Moves are now under way in the US and Europe to fast-track the immunotherapy treatment without waiting to undergo further clinical trials.

Following the success of ­immunotherapy treatments such as Keytruda and Opdivo, Cemiplimab is an anti-PD1 drug that convinces a person’s own immune system to attack their cancer.

Details announced by Peter Mac’s Professor Danny Rischin in Chicago overnight show 28 of the 59 patients treated for cutaneous squam­ous cell carcinoma had their cancers significantly shrunk or eliminated.

Cemiplimab follows the success of ­immunotherapy treatments such as Keytruda and Opdivo.

In some cases, ­patients are still cancer-free more than two years after initial treatment.

“There is quite a large prop­ortion of patients that are benefiting. The other thing that is striking about the responses is that they are quite rapid and appear to be sustained,” Prof Rischin said.

“The majority of patients who have responded have not progressed subsequently.

“We have seen marked ­regression and, in some of the patients, there is nothing left — we have seen a complete ­response.

“This is a cancer for which there was no approved therapies anywhere in the world, and there was no effective treatment, so this is a significant advance.”

In the latest Phase 2 trial ­involving patients from across Australia and overseas, four patients saw their previously terminal skin cancer comp­letely disappear.

Another 24 patients had their cancers reversed significantly — including some who have only slight abnormalities now appearing on scans.

Of the 28 patients who ­responded to the treatment, only three have since seen their cancer progress.

A breakthrough drug has stunned cancer doctors after almost half the terminal patients treated in a trial were saved. Generic picture: Istock

Full details of the study, which was jointly led by the Peter Mac and the University of Texas, were published in the New England Journal of Medicine this morning.

As well as reversing the cancer in almost half the patients, the drug was able to stop the disease progressing for at least 100 days in another nine cases.

In September, the US Food and Drug Administration designated Cemiplimab as a breakthrough therapy to accelerate its development, and it is under “priority review” in the US and Europe so it can be fast-tracked through the app­roval process.

“This is likely to become the new standard of care … ideally this will become standard treatment,” Prof Rischin said.

“We are hoping the results are striking enough that it will be given approval based on this study.”

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma is the second most common form of skin cancer, claiming several hundred Australian lives each year.

While 95 per cent of cases can be cured with surgery, some become incurable.

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