A man whose deadly lung cancer was discovered “by coincidence” has become the first in the UK to receive a “game-changing” vaccine.
Janusz Racz, from London, was given a heartbreaking diagnosis of just four to five months to live in May after the disease was detected during a colonoscopy.
Told that chemotherapy and radiotherapy would only give the 67-year-old scientist a 35 percent chance of surviving five years, he opted to take part in a pioneering vaccine trial.
The vaccine, codenamed BNT116, is manufactured by BioNTech using the same mRNA technology that underpins its highly effective Covid vaccine.
Doctors believe the treatment, which is tailored specifically to each patient and aimed at preventing the cancer from returning, will mark a new era in the fight against the disease.
Janusz Racz, from London, was given a heartbreaking diagnosis of just four to five months to live in May after the disease was detected during a colonoscopy.
Told that chemotherapy and radiotherapy would only give the 67-year-old scientist a 35 percent chance of surviving five years, he opted to take part in the groundbreaking trial.
Designed to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common form of the disease, it is said to be much more precisely targeted than chemotherapy.
This means that it should not have the same collateral damage to healthy cells that causes sometimes overwhelming side effects.
Mr Racz received six injections, five minutes apart, at University College London Hospital (UCLH) on Tuesday.
Each injection contained different RNA strands.
You will now receive the vaccine every week for six weeks, before receiving it at three-week intervals for 54 weeks.
Recalling her diagnosis, she said: ‘I was scheduled for a colonoscopy and my blood pressure was too high, so the doctor decided to send me for a CT colonoscopy.
“It was in mid-February when they detected something in my lung, my right lung.”
Urgent tests confirmed he had lung cancer, which affects around 50,000 people in the UK and 230,000 in the US each year.
“Chemotherapy was particularly challenging, I really wouldn’t want to go through that again,” Racz said.
When she was told about the experiment and “how different it was from the treatment she had recently completed,” she “decided to participate because I hope it will provide a defense against cancer cells.”
He added: “I am also a scientist and I understand that the progress of science – especially in medicine – depends on people agreeing to participate in such research.
“I can be part of the team that can provide proof of concept for this new methodology, and the faster it is implemented worldwide, the more people will be saved.”
Mr Racz was very active before he became ill, climbing several mountains and running marathons in seven countries.
He said: “I think that after the treatment I will recover, I will be stronger. My dream is simply to run more marathons.”
‘I’ve never had the opportunity to run the London Marathon because it’s a lottery, and maybe it would be a possibility to run the marathon as a member of this programme.’
The trial will be conducted at 34 research sites in seven countries, six of which are located in England and Wales.
In total, around 130 lung cancer patients are expected to be enrolled, 20 of whom will be based in the UK.
On Tuesday, Racz received six injections, five minutes apart, at University College London Hospital (UCLH). Each injection contained different RNA strands. He will now receive the vaccine every week for six weeks, before receiving it at three-week intervals for 54 weeks.
Mr Racz was very active before he fell ill, climbing several mountains and running marathons in seven countries. He said: “I think after treatment I will recover, I will be stronger. My dream is to run more marathons.”
Professor Siow Ming Lee, consultant medical oncologist at UCLH, who is leading the UK trial, said: ‘This technology has advanced incredibly quickly.
“It’s easy to administer and you can select specific antigens on the cancer cell and then attack them.”
The phase one clinical trial is the first to study BNT116 in humans, which will be administered to lung cancer patients alongside standard immunotherapy.
“Immunotherapy has made great progress, especially in lung cancer,” added Professor Lee. “But it still does not successfully treat all patients with lung cancer.”
‘We know that it is well tolerated by our patients vaccinated against Covid, so we hope that it will be well tolerated by cancer patients.
He added: “We hope to move to phase two, phase three, and then we hope it becomes the standard of care around the world and saves a lot of lung cancer patients.
“We have to try to push the boundaries, and we have done so for the last 30 or 40 years. It is a privilege to be involved in lung cancer research.”
In July 2023, the Government signed an agreement with BioNTech to provide precision cancer immunotherapies to up to 10,000 patients by 2030.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. It is notoriously difficult to diagnose and often appears later, when it is harder to treat.
Figures show it kills four in five patients within five years. Less than 10 percent of people survive the disease for 10 years or more.
Despite progress, a gender disparity is emerging: women between the ages of 35 and 54 are diagnosed with lung cancer at higher rates than men in the same age group.
Symptoms of lung cancer often aren’t noticed until the cancer has spread through the lungs to other parts of the body.
Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of lung cancer.
However, the percentage of young patients suffering from this disease who have never smoked is also increasing.
Researchers believe the way new homes are built may expose residents to a poisonous gas. They also say vaping and cannabis could be factors.
Unusually, the clinical trial will include patients with early disease who have not yet undergone surgery or radiotherapy, as well as those who have cancer that has spread or returned.
It keeps options open on how best to use the vaccine to improve outcomes for people with cancer.
NHS England’s national director for cancer, Dame Cally Palmer, said: ‘The NHS has a world-leading role in cancer vaccine trials and if we are successful, they could be revolutionary in vaccinating people against their own cancers to prevent the cancer coming back after initial treatment.
‘Hospitals across the country are doing pioneering work with their university and industry partners to look for ways to harness the body’s own immune system to treat a variety of cancers.
‘A cancer diagnosis is very worrying, but access to innovative tests, along with other innovations to diagnose and treat cancer earlier, provides hope.
“We hope to see thousands more patients participating in trials in the coming years.”