mRNA vaccines are promising in pancreatic cancer trials

mRNA-based cancer vaccines have shown impressive results in small trials in patients with pancreatic cancer, indicating that the vaccine can stimulate long-term immune responses that reduce the risk of cancer recurrence after surgery.

New results from Phase I clinical trials Testing of mRNA vaccine Autogensevimeran has been published in the journal Nature. They show that mRNA vaccines, combined with another type of immunotherapy called immune checkpoint inhibitors, stimulated the immune response to proteins found in tumors. These immune cells were detected in test patients up to four years after treatment, indicating that while the mRNA vaccine itself is short-lived in the body, the anti-tumor immune cells stimulated by them last for years.

“The latest data from the Phase 1 trial is encouraging,” said Binodo Barachandran, Maryland, a surgeon scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and a lead investigator at the trial. Masu. “They suggest that this therapeutically treated mRNA vaccine can recruit antitumor T cells that may recognize pancreatic cancer as potentially several years after vaccination.”

Cancer vaccines do not function like vaccines for infectious diseases such as Covid-19 and measles. These vaccines are generally given to people to reduce the likelihood that people will get sick or to reduce the chances of becoming seriously ill from viruses, bacteria or other microorganisms. Cancer vaccines are administered to people who already have cancer and are urging their immune system to attack the tumor.

Just as there are various formulations of Covid-19 mRNA vaccines adapted to different viral variants, the mRNA vaccines used in the trials were personalized for each patient. Using genetic sequencing information, researchers designed an mRNA vaccine to stimulate the immune system against a protein called a neonatal that is specifically present in each patient's tumor. an Previous Report The study showed that the vaccine had no major side effects and that about half of the patients in the trial had a detectable immune response.

“For patients with pancreatic cancer, our latest results continue to support an approach that targets new antigens in each patient's tumor using individual mRNA vaccines,” Balachandran said. . “If we can do this with pancreatic cancer, we could theoretically develop a vaccine for treating other cancer types.”

The results should be interpreted carefully as only a small number of patients are involved in the trial, but only half of them responded, but the results are still exciting as pancreatic cancer survival rates are gloomy . 13% of patients Lives more than five years after diagnosis. Regular treatments such as surgery and chemotherapy have limited benefits, and most patients experience recurrence of the disease. Of the eight patients who initially responded to the mRNA vaccine, six remained escaping cancer at study follow-up.

The mRNA-based cancer vaccine was already in development a few years ago when the Covid-19 pandemic brought the technology to global attention. Like pancreatic cancer, they are currently undergoing trials for several different types of cancer. Skin cancer, Kidney cancer, Brain tumor and breast cancer.

The initial results of mRNA vaccines in pancreatic cancer were promising, much larger Phase 2 exam Of the 260 patients, it is already underway. Patients are randomized into two groups, one patient undergoes surgery followed by traditional chemotherapy treatments, the other to surgically, personalized mRNA vaccines, and post-vaccine immune responses. You will receive immune checkpoint inhibitors to help. The study is expected to close in 2029, but preliminary results should be available at several points prior to that, as researchers track preliminary trial results.