![\"Police](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/TSPA6UCP25LHBHYL35262QCSHE.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe phase I trial, led by the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, included 45 people with advanced bowel cancer whose disease had progressed after two or three treatments, and were not eligible for surgery.<\/p>\n
They were given ozekibart alongside Folfiri chemotherapy, a standard treatment for advanced bowel cancer.<\/p>\n
The trial found that tumours shrank in 20% of patients following the treatment.<\/p>\n
The cancer also stopped growing in almost nine in 10 (87%) people.<\/p>\n
For one patient, there was no visible tumour on their follow-up scan.<\/p>\n
Dr Hazel Lote,\u00a0consultant medical oncologist at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust\u00a0and\u00a0honorary appointee\u00a0at\u00a0the Institute of Cancer Research, London, said: \u201cThese early results are promising\u00a0for patients with advanced\u00a0colorectal\u00a0cancer who have very few treatment options left.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe combination\u00a0of\u00a0ozekibart\u00a0plus Folfiri\u00a0not only shrank tumours in some patients, but stopped the cancer from worsening in many others, suggesting this treatment combination could offer a promising new\u00a0treatment\u00a0option.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amanda Burgess, 59, from East Sussex, joined the trial last July.<\/p>\n
She was diagnosed with bowel cancer in April 2024 and had surgery to remove the tumour, but was later told the cancer had spread.<\/p>\n
\u201cChemotherapy and immunotherapy followed, but unfortunately they weren\u2019t successful,\u201d Mrs Burgess said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis new treatment has given me a new lease of life.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince starting the trial,\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0had two significant reductions in the size of my tumour\u00a0and things\u00a0are now stable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe chemotherapy has been hard at times, but I\u2019ve had no side effects from the\u00a0trial drug itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy energy has returned, and\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0back to doing the things I love.<\/p>\n
\u201cI walk my black Labs Cromwell\u00a0and\u00a0Pip every day,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0playing tennis, attending\u00a0Pilates\u00a0classes and spending time with my husband, David, and our children.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel incredibly fortunate to be on the trial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Lote said the findings, which are being presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago, \u201care really encouraging\u201d and support further research.<\/p>\n
Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK, with more than 48,000 new cases diagnosed each year.<\/p>\n
It is the second biggest cause of cancer deaths, claiming around 17,700 lives annually.<\/p>\n
The trial is being supported by the Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK, which was set up by Dame Deborah James.<\/p>\n
Dame Deborah died in June 2022 at the age of 40.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A targeted treatment that triggers the death of cancer cells has shown promise for patients with advanced bowel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[204939,24276,204940,138248,204941,80812,103,61,125606,60,204942,34939,204943,82,35368,1577],"class_list":["post-475125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-american-society-of-clinical-oncology","tag-bowel-cancer","tag-bowelbabe-fund","tag-cancer-research-uk","tag-deborah-james","tag-east-sussex","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-institute-of-cancer-research","tag-ireland","tag-ozekibart","tag-pa-exclusive","tag-royal-marsden-nhs-foundation-trust","tag-science","tag-south-east","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Amanda](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4OHKB3CHENLGTFN2U4CO6Z3ULQ.jpg\")
Amanda Burgess, 59, from East Sussex was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in April 2024 and joined the trial at The Royal Marsden in July last year <\/p>\n