Different types of tumors with a specific mutation may not need surgery, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Mismatch repair is just what it sounds like: when a cell divides and makes new DNA strands when a mistake is made it repairs them. Some types of cancers with a mismatch repair mutation may now be treated with an immune checkpoint inhibitor and forgo surgery, a recent study finds. William Nelson, director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, says while rectal cancers responded well, so did others.

Nelson: If you look at the ones that did not have rectal cancer there are 54 of them in total, 65% of them had a complete response. They then went on also not to undertake surgery. The significant number of urothelial cancers, that's like bladder and urine tubes, 62% of colon cancers that are complete response, 37% of gastric cancers. But if you look in total, the total scoreboard for 103 people they took care of, 84 of them had a complete response and 82% of them were still doing well despite having no surgery.     :32

Nelson says especially for women with these types of tumors, where treatment often caused infertility, this is a game changer. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.