There are hopes that a pioneering new vaccine could be a breakthrough in treating the deadly and aggressive type of brain cancer suffered by Tom Parker.
The Wanted singer died at just 33 years old in 2002 after being diagnosed with malignant glioblastoma, a type of deadly tumor that is currently considered incurable.
The vaccine, which was tested on four adult patients, was found to have trained their immune systems to recognize cancer cells and fight them, preventing the tumor from growing uncontrollably.
The vaccine, like other experimental treatments being studied, contains fragments of patients’ own tumors, meaning no two injections are the same.
These cancerous particles are designed to look like a dangerous virus when reinjected into the bloodstream, prompting the body to attack the remaining tumor in the brain.
The Wanted’s Tom Parker died in 2022 after being diagnosed with glioblastoma. Pictured: Tom Parker on the Good Morning Britain Christmas special in December 2021
The disease also claimed the life of Beau Biden, President Joe Biden’s son. In the photo: The then vice president of the United States, Biden, with his son, army captain, Beau, in Baghdad in 2009.
The first-in-human trial of the injection, tested in just four patients, found that it triggers a strong immune response two days after the injection.
It has been developed by researchers at the University of Florida and uses the same mRNA technology pioneered during Covid.
The breakthrough means scientists will now be able to test the vaccine in a larger group of brain cancer patients.
About 24 people will be recruited for the next part of the trial.
The study’s lead author, Elias Sayour, a pediatric oncologist at the University of Florida Health, said: “In less than 48 hours, we were able to see these tumors move from what we call ‘cold’: immune cold, very few immune cells, very muted immunity. response: to a “hot” and very active immune response.
“That was very surprising given how quickly it happened, and what that told us is that we were able to activate the initial part of the immune system very quickly against these cancers, and that is critical to unlocking the downstream effects of the immune response.”
It gives hope to people fighting the disease, which has also claimed the lives of Labor politician Tess Jowell, US Senator John McCain and President Joe Biden’s son Beau.
The NHS has said it expects cancer vaccines to be available to thousands of patients in the UK within the next five years, and experts say these new types of treatments could offer hope to people diagnosed with forms of the disease. currently untreatable disease.
Glioblastoma has an average survival of about 15 months and the current standard of care involves surgery, radiation and some combination of chemotherapy.
Researchers say the discovery represents a potential new way to activate the immune system to combat notoriously treatment-resistant cancers using an iteration of mRNA technology similar to Covid-19 vaccines.
Former Labor politician Dame Tessa Jowell died in 2018 after being diagnosed with the disease. Pictured: Tessa Jowell speaking in the House of Lords in January 2018.
The NHS expects cancer vaccines to be available to thousands of patients in the next five years. Pictured: A file image of a needle drawing liquid from a vial.
However, there are two key differences: the use of the patient’s own tumor cells to create a personalized vaccine and a complex, newly designed delivery mechanism within the vaccine.
In the group of four patients, genetic material called RNA was extracted from each patient’s own tumor and then messenger RNA, or mRNA, the blueprint for what’s inside every cell, including tumor cells, was amplified.
It was then wrapped in the newly designed vaccine to make tumor cells look like a dangerous virus when reinjected into the bloodstream and trigger an immune system response.
The trial results reflect those of 10 dog patients with naturally occurring brain tumors and those of clinical trials in mice.
Although it is too early to evaluate the clinical effects of the vaccine, patients in the new trial lived disease-free longer than expected or survived longer than expected.
Dr. Sayour said, “I’m hopeful that this could be a new paradigm for how we treat patients, a new technology platform for how we can modulate the immune system.”
‘I’m hopeful that this can now synergize with other immunotherapies and perhaps unlock those immunotherapies.
“In this paper we showed that you can really have synergy with other types of immunotherapies, so maybe now we can have a combined immunotherapy approach.
The research is published in the journal Cell and comes after the trial of the first personalized anti-cancer mRNA injection for melanoma was announced.
The vaccine also has the potential to stop lung, bladder and kidney cancer.
It is custom-made for each person in just a few weeks and works by telling the body to look for cancer cells and prevent the deadly disease from returning.
A stage 2 trial of the vaccine, involving pharmaceutical companies Moderna and MSD, found that it dramatically reduced the risk of cancer coming back in melanoma patients.
A final phase 3 trial has now been launched.