Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers and has few effective treatments. But messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, famous for their ability to prevent COVID-19, are starting to show some promise against deadly cancers. In a recent early-stage trial, half of pancreatic cancer patients who received a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine after surgery had no tumor recurrence after 18 months. The trial is described in a study published Wednesday. Natureis small, with only 16 patients, and needs to be replicated in a larger study.
“I’m very supportive of the findings,” said Drew Wiseman, director of vaccine research and director of the RNA Innovation Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. Although he pioneered mRNA vaccines, he was not involved in the new paper. “This is not the final proof-of-use study,” he added. Larger studies are needed to determine efficacy. ”
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is the most common type of pancreatic cancer, with a mortality rate of 88%. It is the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States and is becoming more frequent. Surgery is the main method of treatment, but the cancer recurrence rate is 90% within 7 to 9 months. Chemotherapy is only partially effective in delaying relapse. Other treatments, such as immunotherapy, are largely ineffective.
Pancreatic cancer is often not detected until later stages when it is more difficult to treat. One of the reasons this is so sneaky is that it produces relatively little of certain surface proteins called neoantigens, which mark it as foreign and trigger an immune response. Scientists have noticed that people who survive pancreatic cancer have a stronger response to these neoantigens from T cells, a type of immune cell.
In a new study, Vinod Balachandran, a physician assistant at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and his colleagues used mRNA technology to target pancreatic cancer patients’ own tumor neoantigens. bottom. This technology is the same technology used to create the spectacularly successful COVID-19 vaccine. The experimental vaccine used by Balachandran and his colleagues was manufactured by BioNTech, the company that worked with Pfizer to develop one of its COVID-19 vaccines. The researchers vaccinated a total of 16 patients. After surgically removing the tumor, patients were treated with an mRNA vaccine tailored to their specific cancer and an adjuvant to make the vaccine more effective. Fifteen of the participants also received chemotherapy.
Eight of the 16 patients had strong T-cell responses to the vaccine. The median follow-up after treatment he was 18 months, and these people lived longer without their cancer coming back.
The study was small and included only Caucasian patients. And while this treatment is expensive, it doesn’t work for everyone with pancreatic cancer. Nonetheless, experts say this is a promising development for a disease with so limited treatment options.
