← Return to Anyone else have Anal cancer: What treatments did you have?

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@marty28

I was diagnosed with stage 4 anal cancer January 2021. There was one large tumor and ten small ones. The large tumor caused a bowel blockage so I had an emergency colostomy. Then I had 10 days of radiation where I lost 22 pounds, had no appetite and was exhausted. This was followed by a year of chemotherapy and two years of immunotherapy with Keytruda. The colostomy was reversed early 2023. There was no sign of cancer, so in November 2023 they stopped treatment. The Pet scan this past December found a new tumor. I had surgery to have it removed in March. So I am back on Keytruda, probably for the rest of my life. Hoping for the best and staying positive.

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Replies to "I was diagnosed with stage 4 anal cancer January 2021. There was one large tumor and..."

There is a new trial with an immunotherapy drug dostarlimab, drug maker GSK, trial performed at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer- instead of using standard treatment, chemo, radiation, surgery, it proved to be successful with getting rid of tumors-
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2404512
from a New York Times article, 4/27/2025:
"It is approved as a treatment for uterine cancers with mismatch repair mutations and is included in clinical guidelines for the treatment of rectal cancer, based on an earlier small study."

the article may be behind a paywall/subscribers
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/health/cancer-immunotherapy-solid-tumors.html