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A triple-action cancer jab blocked a crucial protein that helps cancers grow and stopped a second pathway that tumour cells use to evade treatment, while also activating the immune system to attack — with 15 patients seeing their tumours completely disappear in the trial.
Breakthrough cancer jab shows ‘unprecedented’ tumour eradication in trial
- Doctors have hailed “unprecedented” results from a breakthrough cancer injection that completely eradicated tumours in some patients who had run out of treatment options.
- The revolutionary drug amivantamab showed remarkable success in a trial of 102 head and neck cancer patients, with 42% seeing their tumours shrink and 15 patients experiencing complete tumour disappearance.
- Carl Walsh, 56, from Birmingham, was among those whose life was transformed by the treatment. “I struggled to speak properly and found eating difficult because of the swelling and pain,” he said of his tongue cancer at its worst.
- After joining the trial at The Royal Marsden hospital, Carl’s condition dramatically improved. “The thing I enjoyed most was the first big steak,” he said, adding: “I now feel able to live a normal life.”
- The drug, administered every three weeks, works by blocking crucial proteins that help cancers develop while boosting the immune system’s ability to fight the disease.
- Professor Kevin Harrington from The Institute of Cancer Research said: “These are unprecedentedly strong responses in patients whose disease has become resistant to both chemotherapy and immunotherapy.”
- The treatment offers hope to thousands of patients facing limited options, with around 12,800 people diagnosed with head and neck cancer in the UK each year.
READ THE FULL STORY: Cancer jabs destroy whole tumours in treatment-resistant cases, trial shows