A new treatment out of the United States has resulted in colorectal cancer patients tumours disappearing.
Frank Frizelle, a colorectal surgery professor at Otago University and Bowel Cancer NZ medical adviser, says it's a preliminary result but it's an interesting step forward.
In the study, a group of 12 patients were given a drug and all of them saw their cancer vanish, Frizelle said.
"But it is just one [treatment] centre, it is a very specific type of rectal cancer, a very specific genetic abnormality and the study is very early."
He did admit the results are very exciting and things are heading in the right direction.
"If this treatment works, we can get it sort of embedded in the way we do things, we can avoid the trauma, the complications and the poor quality of life you get after surgery."
Frizelle said it is unlikely that this specific treatment will be effective on other types of cancer due to it only targeting a certain genetic abnormality.
"No doubt people will try but the concept that you can make cancers disappear with drugs in the rectum and that you don't need surgery is a really important principle that we need to build on and look at other things that will have the same affect," he said.
He said the fact the cancer disappeared is great news but the question is whether it stays that way.
Around 3000 Kiwis are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year and around 1200 will die as a consequence.
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