Biomarkers that could change the way cancer is treated

A 30-year-old young woman was unfortunately diagnosed with mid-to-late stage rectal cancer. According to traditional standard cancer treatment methods, she needed to undergo radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and then surgery. After the surgery, even if the tumor was successfully removed, she would have to carry a colostomy, commonly known as a “fecal bag”, for life, which would have a huge impact on her quality of life. However, the application of biomarkers changed all this and brought her a miraculous turnaround.

A biomarker is a molecule or indicator that can be used to measure biological processes in the body. It may exist in blood, urine, tissues, cells, or even genes, and can reflect a person’s health status, disease progression, or response to treatment.

Biomarkers are like the human body’s “health code”. These clues can help doctors diagnose diseases, determine which treatment is suitable for patients, monitor efficacy, predict whether the disease will recur, etc. Biomarker testing can make treatment more accurate and targeted, avoid blind treatment attempts, improve efficacy, and improve patients’ quality of life.

A “standard package” to avoid overtreatment

In cancer treatment, biomarkers play a vital role, freeing patients from the “standard package” of “surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy” in cancer treatment and achieving precise treatment of “giving the right patient the right medicine at the right time.”

The young female patient mentioned at the beginning of the article is a treatment case shared by Dr. Huang Yiwu, attending physician at the Marymour Hospital Cancer Center in Brooklyn, New York, on the New Tang Dynasty TV program [Health 1+1]. At that time, after the patient was diagnosed with rectal cancer, Dr. Huang performed a biomarker test on her and found that the patient’s tumor carried a special gene mutation – MSI-High (high microsatellite instability). Patients with this mutation usually respond very well to immunotherapy.

Therefore, based on the test results, the doctor decided not to use traditional radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but instead chose a more targeted treatment option for her – immunotherapy, using a new drug, PD-1 antibody Dostarlimab.

The patient was injected with Dostarlimab every three weeks. After six months of treatment, the tumor completely disappeared. It has been more than a year now, and there has been no recurrence. This young female patient not only avoided the pain of surgery, the side effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but more importantly, she did not need to carry a colostomy (fecal bag) for life. It can be said that this result not only saved her life, but also saved her life.