Zero Relapses in 32 Bowel Cancer Patients Treated Before Surgery
Patients with a specific tumour genetic profile received pembrolizumab before surgery and remained recurrence-free through 33 months of follow-up. The small UK trial points towards a shorter treatment path for a subset of bowel cancers.
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None of 32 patients in a UK bowel cancer trial had a reported recurrence through 33 months of follow-up after a short immunotherapy course before surgery, researchers reported.
The patients had stage two or three cancer and tumours with a particular genetic profile. They received pembrolizumab for up to nine weeks before their operations, in a regimen designed to avoid the usual three to six months of chemotherapy after surgery.
The result held even among participants whose treatment left small amounts of cancer, according to the research team. Earlier results found no detectable disease after pembrolizumab and planned surgery in 59% of participants. Now, the longer follow-up offers an encouraging finding beyond that initial response: no reported relapses across the whole group.
The trial, called NEOPRISM-CRC, was led by University College London and University College London Hospitals. Its follow-up findings were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in April 2026, with a further account published on October 10.
For Christopher Burston, a participant diagnosed with stage three bowel cancer, the response was memorable. He recalled doctors saying the cancer had "melted away". He received three doses over nine weeks before surgery in May 2023 and said he remains cancer-free while attending follow-up appointments.
Surgery remained part of his treatment, as it did in the trial's planned regimen. The achievement was to bring immunotherapy forward, before the operation, and avoid the usual post-operative chemotherapy.
