Recent mRNA Vaccine Research: Answers for Patients and Families

The research team recently published a paper in a journal. Nature This caught the attention of the news media and everyone with pancreatic cancer. Despite being a small, early-stage clinical trial, the findings show promise for using mRNA vaccine technology to provide personalized treatment for pancreatic cancer patients. Read more about this study, its impact on pancreatic cancer patients, and the immunotherapy field as a whole.

What is the basis of this study? What did the researchers test?

this Phase I A clinical trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center tested mRNA vaccines as a treatment. pancreatic cancer. The researchers used proteins taken from each participant’s tumor to create a personalized vaccine. The strategy for this clinical trial was based on: previous research Assessing immune responses in short-term and long-term survivors from pancreatic cancer — the study was funded in part by PanCAN.The goal of the newly published research is to train a patient’s immune system to recognize and attack pancreatic cancer cells in the body, an approach to cancer treatment. immunotherapy. Other studies have looked at immunotherapy against pancreatic cancer, but this is one of his first studies using mRNA vaccine technology.

how was the result?

as reported in the magazine Nature On May 10, half of the 16 patients in the study responded to treatment that included another immunotherapy drug, the personalized vaccine. checkpoint inhibitor Chemotherapy after surgery to remove a pancreatic tumor. In eight people, the vaccine activated immune cells called T cells and suppressed the development of cancer. These patients had a longer progression-free survival (the time during which their disease did not worsen) compared to those who did not respond to treatment. Overall, the results “suggest that the vaccine provokes an effective and sustained immune response,” the report said. article About the research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Can I enroll in this clinical trial?

This clinical trial has ended and is no longer being conducted. PanCAN Patient Service helps you find clinical trials that meet your needs. Please contact us or use us. Clinical trial finder.

What does this study mean for patients with pancreatic cancer?

This study demonstrates the promise of using mRNA vaccine technology to provide personalized treatment for pancreatic cancer patients, and that immunotherapeutic approaches may be an effective strategy against this disease. is shown. Additional follow-up is needed to determine whether this approach is effective on a broader scale. One question that researchers are paying particular attention to is why some patients responded to treatment and others did not. Understanding more about this will help determine if there are different ways to better tailor treatment to the individual.Another goal is to find possibilities biomarker Helps identify which patients are most likely to benefit.

What are some recent advances in immunotherapy?

Keytruda® was approved in May 2017 for the treatment of any solid tumor in the body with a specific biomarker called MSI-high, dMMR or TMB-H. Approximately 1-3% of pancreatic cancer patients have tumors with these characteristics, indicating that tumor cells may harbor more mutations. Keytruda is a type of immunotherapy checkpoint inhibitor. These drugs release the brakes on the immune system and prevent the tumor from defending itself against immune attack. Currently, the only other immunotherapy approved for pancreatic cancer is a checkpoint inhibitor called Jemperli for dMMR tumors.

Earlier this year, New England Journal of Medicine published a case report of a patient who experienced positive reaction Worked on a new immunotherapeutic approach to treat her pancreatic cancer. Her T cells were engineered to become more potent and recognize specific mutations in the protein KRAS, which is mutated in nearly all pancreatic tumors. The researchers who developed this treatment early stage clinical trials We are testing our approach in patients with various types of advanced cancer.

I am interested in understanding more about immunotherapy as a treatment option. what should i do?

Most of the immunotherapy drugs for pancreatic cancer are still in clinical trials. In clinical trials, it is usually given in combination with other treatments, such as chemotherapy. PanCAN Patient Service It helps you understand the immunotherapies being studied for pancreatic cancer. You can also search for available immunotherapy clinical trials.Read more about immunotherapy question set Helps start a conversation with your doctor.