The study, which was led by a group of scientists at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center in New York, used an mRNA vaccine for pancreatic cancer tailored to each patient’s tumor to help trigger an immune response.
An mRNA vaccine for pancreatic cancer patients showed promising results in a study conducted by researchers from New York and the German company BioNTech, preventing tumor recurrence in half of the patients who were treated.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest types of cancer, killing 88% of patients. It is also considered one of the most dangerous types of cancer because the disease returns quickly even after successful eradication. Thus, about 90% of patients experience a relapse within seven to nine months after surgery.
The study, which was led by a group of scientists at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center in New York, used an mRNA vaccine for pancreatic cancer tailored to each patient’s tumor to help trigger an immune response.
The revolutionary aspect of these vaccines, which scientists have tested in Germany, is their design to match the mutant proteins found on the surface of cancer cells, rather than a mixture of tumor and normal cells as has been tried for decades.
“The results are positive,” said Dr. Vinod Balachandran, co-author of the study, indicating that it may become possible to use vaccines as a treatment against pancreatic cancer.
Half of the patients given the vaccine responded as their immune systems learned how to recognize and fight cancer cells, and they showed no signs of relapse within 18 months.
In contrast, eight patients did not respond to the vaccine and their cancer returned about 13 months after they underwent resection.
This is why the researchers believe the vaccine was most effective for patients whose spleens remained intact: Of seven study participants who had their spleens removed, five did not respond to the vaccine.
Nevertheless, the results of the latest study are promising and are on the right track for the treatment of pancreatic cancers and other potentially aggressive types of tumours.
The researchers plan to enroll additional patients starting this summer to start a clinical trial that will include more sites and different countries.
“It’s exciting to see that a personalized vaccine can recruit the immune system to fight pancreatic cancer that urgently needs better treatments,” Balachandran said.
“It’s also motivating because we may be able to use such personalized vaccines to treat other deadly cancers,” he added.
