Cancer is one of the most common diseases on the planet. Fortunately, there is further progress in treating it.

Every year, doctors from around the world meet in Chicago (USA) to share innovations in diagnosis and treatment.

at the meeting Recent advances presented this year by the American Society of Clinical Oncology offer some more hope and, according to experts, they represent a change of perspective to combat certain types of tumors.

Here are some of these developments and what they could mean:

1. Breast cancer: A drug that benefits more people

this trastuzumabAn intravenous therapy has been used for decades to treat breast cancer.

It gives good results, but has a limitation: it can only be prescribed to patients with a gene called HER2.

A new compound trastuzumab deruxtecan can change this.

“We’re seeing the arrival of a revolutionary drug,” says oncologist Romualdo Barroso, research coordinator at the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital in Brasilia.

Acts like a Trojan horseBarroso explains. So it enters the body as if it were one thing, but actually works from something else.

On the one hand, trastuzumab is a monoclonal antibody In the case of breast cancer, it binds to receptors found on the surface of cancer cells. well “attention” of the immune system, seeing cancer as a threat and starting to fight it.

The second effect is done as follows: deruksecan“invades” diseased cells. This chemotherapy drug destroys the tumor from the inside out.

Innovation is not just how it works, it’s also it goes well even in patients with less developed HER2 gene. Barroso estimates that about 7 out of 10 patients could benefit from it.

It is administered intravenously every 21 days and is currently pending regulatory approval for hospital use.

It may be used initially, when initial treatment options have failed and metastases have occurred. Over time, it’s likely to become an option for early-stage tumors as well, according to Barroso.

2. Rectal cancer: drug with surprising results (even for doctors)

Consider a drug that eradicates disease in all patients who are pre-studied to see if it works.

what happened Dostarlimab trial for the treatment of rectal cancer. Already used for other tumors, this drug stimulates the immune system to attack them.

Twelve patients were treated in the trial and followed for 6 months. Upon completion, none of them had any evidence of a tumor in their body. This prevented them from moving on to more aggressive treatments such as surgery, radiation therapy or chemotherapy.

“So surprising even for doctors”Says oncologist Rachel Riechelmann, director of the Division of Clinical Oncology at AC Camargo Cancer Center in São Paulo.

Despite this finding, a few things should be considered.

First follow-up period, six months, a short time. “The disease may reappear after a few years,” analyzes Riechelmann.

Second, the drug only works in patients with tumors with “microsatellite instability” (MSI-H). About 1% of rectal cancer cases meet these criteria.

It is not yet approved for its new use, but research is ongoing.

3. Colorectal cancer: The test to avoid unnecessary chemotherapy

Another innovation of the congress was presented by a group of researchers from Australia. reduce the number of interventionsp. that a patient must go through.

They explored a method known as “liquid biopsy” where fragments of tumor DNA that can appear in the bloodstream are detected.

Colorectal cancer patients often have surgery to remove the affected part of the intestine. After recovery, most undergo chemotherapy to remove any possible tumor cell remnants.

This limits relapses, but because it’s an intensive therapy, it can have side effects.

With a “liquid biopsy” it can be more easily determined whether this chemotherapy is necessary.

With the study conducted with 455 volunteers, “It was possible to halve the administration of chemotherapy and achieve the same patient survival outcome”, Says oncologist Rodrigo Dienstmann, medical director of Oncoclinics Precision Medicine in São Paulo.

“Liquid biopsy has revolutionary potential,” the doctor analyzes.

4. Pancreatic cancer: hope for successful cure

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma may top the list of tumors with the worst prognosis.

In the last 10 years, Advances are limited to new chemotherapy treatments. With regard to more modern and less aggressive drugs such as immunotherapy or monoclonal antibodies, positive results have not yet been seen for this type of patient.

First tests using a method called now CAR-T cell therapy against this type of cancer.

It involves removing the patient’s own immune cells, modifying them in the lab, and reintroducing them into the body to recognize and attack the tumor.

Although extremely interesting, It’s not something that will be available in our clinics tomorrow.” He thinks of Paolo Hoff, professor of Clinical Oncology at the University of São Paulo.

“There is a long way to go but at least now we have hope that we can be on the right track.”