Although even the best cancer drugs don't buy much time for most people with advanced cancer, there are rare exceptions: patients whose tumors melt away and who remain healthy years later. Researchers have long dismissed these "exceptional responders" as unexplainable outliers. Now, an effort to systematically study them is yielding data that could help improve cancer treatments. The project, led by the U.S. National Cancer Institute, examined tumor DNA and the immune cells found around or within the cancers in 111 exceptional responders. In 26 of the patients, scientists found clues that may explain why a drug that didn't work for most people shrank the tumors for months or years. The results suggest new drug combinations and highlight the value of conducting genomic tests of patients' tumors in order to customize treatments.

尽管即使最好的抗癌药物也不能为大多数晚期癌症患者带来很多时间，但也有罕见的例外：肿瘤消融且多年后仍保持健康的患者。长期以来，研究人员一直将这些“例外响应者”视为无法解释的异常值。现在，系统研究它们的努力正在产生可以帮助改善癌症治疗的数据。该项目由美国国家癌症研究所（US National Cancer Institute）牵头，对111名异常应答者中的肿瘤DNA或免疫细胞进行了检查。在其中的26位患者中，科学家发现了一些线索，可以解释为什么对大多数人无效的药物会缩短肿瘤几个月或几年的时间。结果提示了新药的组合，并突出了对患者肿瘤进行基因组测试以定制治疗方法的价值。