Safety and Feasibility of PD-1 Blockade in the Treatment of Rectal Cancer
Status:
Recruiting
Trial end date:
2022-08-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide and the second leading cause of
cancer mortality in the United States. The current standard of care (SOC) for locally
advanced rectal cancer includes neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radiation followed by surgery.
However, great variability exists in patient's response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy with
only about 20-25% of patients achieving a complete response while other patients achieve a
partial or no treatment response. The purpose of this study is to test the investigational
agent, Pembrolizumab, in combination with SOC radiation and Capecitabine (or 5-Fluorouacil)
in treatment of patients with mismatch repair deficient locally advanced rectal cancer.