Nigeria on Wednesday launched its first clinical trial using immunotherapy to treat colorectal cancer, a move doctors say could expand options for patients who do not respond to conventional chemotherapy.
The Phase II study will test a PD-1 blocking drug in patients whose tumours carry a genetic profile known as mismatch-repair deficient or microsatellite instability-high, a subtype that researchers estimate accounts for nearly 30 percent of colorectal cancer cases in Nigeria.
While that mutation often makes tumours resistant to chemotherapy, it also makes them more responsive to immunotherapy, a treatment that helps the immune system recognise and attack cancer cells.
The trial is being conducted by Nigeria’s Obafemi Awolowo University and Lagos University Teaching Hospital in partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the United States.
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“This is an important milestone in the fight against colorectal cancer in Nigeria,” said Olusegun Isaac Alatise, professor of surgery at Obafemi Awolowo University and a lead investigator in the study.
He said the research could offer new strategies for patients with limited treatment options because of genetic mutations.
Colorectal cancer is an emerging health challenge in Nigeria, where clinicians say fewer than half of patients survive beyond a year after diagnosis, often due to late detection and limited access to advanced therapies.
The study, formally titled “PD-1 Blockade in Mismatch-Repair Deficient Colorectal Cancer in Nigeria,” will test tislelizumab, a drug designed to block the PD-1 protein that cancer cells use to evade immune attack.
Enrollment will take place at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital in Ile-Ife and at the Medserve LUTH Cancer Centre in Lagos, operated by Medserve, a subsidiary of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority.
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Fatimah Abdulkareem, professor of anatomic and molecular pathology at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, said the collaboration would help bring cutting-edge cancer care closer to Nigerian patients.
“We are committed to ensuring that our patients benefit from the best of global research,” she said.
The study sponsor and data coordinating centre is Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which said the trial builds on earlier research that changed treatment standards for some colorectal cancer patients in the United States.
The drug is being supplied by BeOne Medicines, while BioVentures for Global Health supported regulatory approvals. Partial funding comes from the Thompson Family Foundation.
Regulatory clearance was granted by Nigeria’s National Health Research Ethics Committee and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control before the trial opened for enrollment, the organisers said.
Tolulope Adewole, chief executive of Medserve, said the partnership aimed to establish a sustainable model of oncology care. “Quality cancer treatment should not depend on geography,” he said.
If successful, researchers say the trial could help reshape treatment protocols for a defined subset of Nigerian colorectal cancer patients and lay the groundwork for further immunotherapy studies in sub-Saharan Africa.
