Colon and rectal cancer is the fourth leading cause of Death of tumors in America, according to the Pan American Health Organization. Luis Alberto Diaz Jr., a US-born doctor with a Peruvian heart, wants to find his cure. With more than 30 years of preparation, the oncologist began a clinical trial to treat the disease that surprised the medical community. Why is? In the following note The Republic we tell you
In 2017, Luis Alberto Díaz Jr. started the clinical trial to cure colon cancer. Photo: MSKCC
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Who is Luis Alberto Díaz, a doctor who wants to cure colon cancer?
Luis Alberto Díaz Jr. was born in the United States but his life is steeped in Peruvian culture as his mother is from Trujillo and his father is from a small town called Cascas in La Libertad.
Its heart is red and white and whenever it can, it returns to our territory to spend time with its family and enjoy the local diversity. “We have a lot of families in Lima, but I like going straight to Cascas because there is spectacular wine. We have a house in the mountains, my children and my brothers know it too,” he commented in an interview with Andina.
He inherited his passion for medicine from his father dermatologist Luis Alberto Diaz. It was his big inspiration to become oncologist from the University of Michigan and was educated at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
In 2017, he focused his efforts on a clinical trial to treat patients with colon cancer. Together with his colleague Andrea Cercek and a team of researchers, they managed to “cure” at least 12 patients with immunotherapy. The results surprised the scientific community and were published in The New England Journal of Medicine. He is currently Chief of the Division of Solid Tumor Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC).
Luis Alberto Díaz Jr., his colleague Andrea Cercek and their colon cancer patients. Photo: MSKCC
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What did the clinical study for the treatment of colon cancer consist of?
According to Diaz, the clinical study was performed on patients in the United States who were not receiving any treatment for colon cancer and whose tumor had a specific genetic mutation. For six months, they were injected intravenously with an experimental drug called dostarlimab. Its main function was to expose cancer cells so the immune system could identify and destroy them.
“We found a specific marker that says something about the genetics of this tumor, and when we treated it with immunotherapy, the cancer went away completely. We saw a first patient, then two, and we got to 12 patients, and all of them had their tumors gone,” he explained.
This study is not only important for a possible complete cure for colon cancer, but also for other types of cancer such as gastric, pancreas, prostate, uterus Y mothers that have a genetic mutation similar to that analyzed. “What we’re going to see now is whether we can find patients with other types of tumors that have this genetic change to treat them in the same way,” he said.
The next phase of the clinical study is to verify that the neoplasm does not return. “Now 40 patients are being treated with very good results and we want to reach 100 to publish the new findings,” he stressed.