Imagine being told you have stage three bowel cancer, undergoing a new treatment, and then hearing your doctor say the cancer has “melted away.” That’s precisely what happened to Christopher Burston, 73, and 31 other patients in a groundbreaking clinical trial.
Researchers from UCL and UCLH just dropped an update on their NEOPRISM-CRC trial, and the news is, well, frankly astonishing: nearly three years on, none of the patients who received a short course of immunotherapy before surgery have seen their cancer return. Let that satisfying number sink in.
The Cancer That Vanished
Typically, about a quarter of patients receiving standard treatment (surgery plus chemotherapy) will see their bowel cancer creep back within three years. But for the 32 patients in this trial, who all had a specific genetic profile (MMR deficient/MSI-high, affecting 10-15% of stage 2/3 bowel cancer cases), a nine-week course of pembrolizumab before surgery changed everything.
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Start Your News DetoxPrevious data showed 59% had no detectable cancer after treatment. Now, 33 months later, that number holds. No recurrence. Not a single one. Which, if you think about it, is both impressive and slightly terrifying for anyone who thought cancer was a one-way street.
Dr. Kai-Keen Shiu, the trial’s chief investigator, called it “very encouraging,” which is British understatement for "we are absolutely floored." He also pointed out that personalized blood tests and immune profiling might help doctors predict who will respond best, allowing for super-tailored treatments. Less therapy for those crushing it, more for those who need a bigger push. Because apparently that’s where we are now.
A Patient's Story of Disappearing Cancer
Christopher Burston, who joined the trial in February 2023, is a prime example. After a routine screening flagged a problem, he was diagnosed with stage three bowel cancer. Instead of the usual chemo-then-surgery routine, he signed up for the trial, traveling to London for three doses of immunotherapy over nine weeks.
His surgery followed in May 2023. A week in the hospital, mild side effects, and then the magic words from his doctor: the cancer had “melted away.” He saw the images from his initial colonoscopy – a substantial lump, now gone. Nearly a year later, Christopher is cancer-free, back to his normal life, and feeling “very lucky that my main problem is now age, not cancer.”
This trial didn't just show that immunotherapy can be effective; it showed it can be lastingly effective, turning a typically grim prognosis into a story of the cancer that simply… disappeared. And that’s a story worth telling.
