Photodynamic therapy combined with sintilimab combined with bevacizumab in the treatment of patients with KRAS gene mutant advanced rectal cancer: A Case Report

For some patients with advanced rectal cancer who are ineligible for surgical intervention or unresponsive to drug - based therapies, the current treatment options are typically restricted, and the therapeutic outcomes are suboptimal. This article reports a case of a patient with advanced rectal cancer who was resistant to anti-EGFR due to KRAS gene mutation and was treated with photodynamic therapy combined with sintilimab and bevacizumab. After two cycles of treatment, the patient's carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level decreased from 21 ng/ml to 6.98 ng/ml. After six treatment cycles, the CEA level further declined to 4.30 ng/ml, and MRI examination showed that the tumor volume shrank significantly. Besides, throughout the entire treatment process, there was no tumor progression. The integration of PDT with traditional therapeutic approaches, including chemotherapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy, has the potential to elicit a synergistic effect, thereby augmenting the overall therapeutic efficacy.