Experts have begun the first immunotherapy clinical trial in Nigeria to treat colorectal cancer, saying the treatment offers new hope to patients battling an advanced stage of the disease.

They said the trial, which is one of the first in sub-Saharan Africa, would see doctors using immunotherapy, a treatment that harnesses the body’s own immune system, to treat patients with colorectal cancer free of charge.

The team of experts is drawn from Medserve, Obafemi Awolowo University, and Lagos University Teaching Hospital in Nigeria, working collaboratively with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a world leader in cancer care based in the United States.

The study, titled “PD-1 Blockade in Mismatch-Repair Deficient Colorectal Cancer in Nigeria,” is a Phase II clinical trial.

During the trial, the experts will test a drug, tislelizumab, which works by blocking a specific protein (PD-1) that cancer cells use to evade the immune system, effectively enabling the patient’s own immune system to recognise and attack the disease.

Before launch, the trial underwent rigorous review and received full approval from both the National Health Research Ethics Committee and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, ensuring compliance with the highest standards of safety and ethics.

Patients for the trial will be enrolled at two specialised centres: the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital in Ile-Ife and Medserve LUTH Cancer Centre in Lagos.

The World Health Organisation says colorectal cancer, which affects the large intestine (colon) or rectum, is the third most common cancer worldwide and is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide.

Addressing a press conference in Lagos on Monday at LUTH, Idi-Araba, a Co-principal Investigator, Prof.

Fatimah Abdulkareem, said the trial had become imperative to curb the burden of colorectal cancer in Nigeria.

According to her, colorectal cancer isn’t just one disease; it’s multiple diseases in one.

Abdulkareem, who is a professor of Anatomic and Molecular Pathology at the College of Medicine of the University of Lagos and LUTH, decried the colorectal cancer mortality rate in Nigeria, lamenting that over 50 per cent of Nigerian patients die within one year of diagnosis.

“Currently, their only real option is chemotherapy, which often doesn’t work for them.

There is an urgent need for innovative, evidence-based treatment,” she said.

The need for innovative treatment, she said, led to the immunotherapy clinical trial.

“This trial is about changing that statistic.

Through genetic classification, we’ve learned that there are four major types of colorectal cancer.

One unique type is called mismatch repair-deficient (dMMR).

“Our research shows that this specific type is actually more common here in Nigeria than in other parts of the world.

About one-third of our cases—over 30%—are this dMMR type.

These patients do not respond well to chemotherapy, but studies show they respond exceptionally....