Richard Berry had tried nearly everything to fight his prostate cancer: surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. But after two years of treatment, his cancer had metastasized. The opportunity to participate in a clinical trial was his last hope.
“I wasn’t ready to die,” Berry, 75, of Keene, NH, tells The Post. “I didn’t want to mess around.”
In 2015, he connected with Dr. Christopher Sweeney, an oncologist at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who was leading a trial in which the drug enzalutamide — an androgen-receptor inhibitor that stops the growth of cancer cells — was being used in conjunction with testosterone suppression to treat metastasized prostate cancer.
Berry became one of 1,125 patients involved in the trial. Remarkably, he’s now cancer-free.
“He’s one of the most dramatic cases to date,” Sweeney tells The Post of Berry’s progress. “He’s in a deep remission. This is what I had hoped to see. However, the magnitude of the effect and the early results were a surprise and delight.”
So far, Sweeney says, he’s seen a handful of deep remissions like Berry’s and that “the results were positive sooner than we anticipated.” The study was published in July in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The drug, which is already FDA-approved for other uses, is currently under FDA review to make it more widely available for metastasized prostate cancer patients and not just for use in clinical trials.
Approval is anticipated “any day now,” according to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute reps.
Meanwhile, Berry’s scans continue to be clear a year after he stopped the treatment.
“I don’t even think about [the cancer] anymore,” Berry says. “I feel good. I have energy again, and, overall, I’m just happy.”
Here, six more amazing medical breakthroughs that could be a reality — and soon.
A blood test for breast cancer
Researchers at the University of Nottingham in England have created a blood test that could potentially detect breast cancer up to five years before a lump or other symptoms appear. The test, which would be much cheaper and easier to conduct than a mammogram, looks for autoantibodies (produced by the body in reaction to cancer cells) in the blood.
The researchers said in a statement that another larger study is planned, and, if all goes well, the test could be on the market within the next five years.
The discovery was presented at the UK’s National Cancer Research Institute’s annual conference in early November, which showcases the world’s biggest cancer advances. A similar test for lung cancer is currently being studied in Scotland.
A new cystic fibrosis find
After two clinical trials, a new drug, Trikafta, a triple combination therapy, was found to cause “significant improvements” in cystic fibrosis patients’ respiratory health and lung function, leading the FDA to fast-track its approval in October.
The trial’s results were published in the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine.
Trikafta is now available to patients 12 and older who have the most common cystic fibrosis mutation, which could affect almost 90% of people with the disease, or about 27,000 people in the US.
A promising Alzheimer’s drug
Early disappointing results halted studies, but after a comprehensive review of the data, researchers are excited once again about an Alzheimer’s drug called aducanumab.
After 18 months of taking the drug, participants showed lowered cognitive decline (about 15% to 27%) on memory and cognitive ability tests compared to a placebo. The results were published in late October in the journal Nature.
Due to these results, the drug manufacturer is currently seeking FDA approval for aducanumab to treat Alzheimer’s disease soon after diagnosis.
Crispr for everything
Crispr is a gene-editing tool that allows scientists to modify DNA and genes.
The technique is being used in numerous ways, from medical research to growing crops. Some of its proposed innovations — destroying superbugs, eradicating malaria and curing HIV — are quite far off.
Still, the progress is exciting. A patient has been successfully treated for sickle cell disease using the technology, and clinical trials using Crispr to treat cancers such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma are currently recruiting. Next month, at the American Society of Hematology meeting in Orlando, Fla., scientists will present the results of a three-person cancer study where Crispr was used to treat two people with multiple myeloma and one with sarcoma.
Another sickle cell breakthrough
The first patient in an ongoing clinical trial for sickle cell disease, Manny Johnson, 22, who used to require monthly blood transfusions, has been symptom-free for more than a year after undergoing treatment in Boston. Another sufferer, Jennelle Stephenson, 28, reported showing no signs of sickle cell anemia in March after undergoing a yearlong treatment in DC.
The treatment, which is based on 70 years of research, uses a novel gene therapy treatment — an infusion of the patient’s own reworked bone marrow — to help the body produce normal red blood cells consistently.
Clinical trials are ongoing around the country. The results of the first adolescent participant, a 16-year-old girl, are expected next month from Dana-Farber.
Peanut allergy promise
A new study out of Stanford University showed that after one injection of the antibody, etokimab, which is already being studied to treat other immune issues such as asthma and eczema, people with severe peanut allergies were able to eat peanut protein — just two weeks later.
The study was published Nov. 14 online in the journal JCI Insight.
Currently, the only available treatment for the potentially deadly allergy is oral immunotherapy, where patients eat small doses in graduating scales under medical care. The process can take up to a year and can cause allergic reactions.
A larger study is planned to shore up dosing, timing and hopefully be used to treat other food allergies.