Anti-cancer vaccine trial has been successful in the first stage

Research presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago (USA), has invented the vaccine cancer The first is specifically designed for each patient that can be trained Immune System to recognize and attack tumors.

Pancreatic cancer is said to be the deadliest cancer because it has the lowest survival rate, with only a quarter of cases surviving one year.

Scientists have developed a breakthrough treatment for pancreatic cancer using technology mRNA was once used in the Covid-19 vaccine.

Aimed at preventing tumors from growing back after surgery, this vaccine enhances the body’s ability to find and destroy cancer cells. cancer, in the hope that more patients can be cured. It can be said that vaccines can become “an important new weapon against this most dangerous cancer”, according to the report. Express.

Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York (USA) have teamed up with German company BioNTech – best known for vaccines Covid-19.

Dr Vinod Balachandran, of MSK, said: “Unlike other cancers that are promising, for pancreatic cancer all current therapies are almost ineffective. But these mRNA vaccines appear to be able to stimulate an immune response in pancreatic cancer patients.

Previous research has found that patients who performed the feat of surviving longer – have proteins in their tumors that “signal” to other organs. immune cells targeting. Scientists are beginning to find a way to create this effect.

Pancreatic cancer vaccine could be ‘important new weapon against the deadliest cancer’ Shutterstock

Tumor samples from 16 people in a US trial were transferred from New York to Germany, and each vaccine is manufactured using mRNA that contains specific genetic information for proteins in the patient’s tumour.

When given, the vaccine stimulates the body to produce these proteins so that immune cells learn to recognize them.

Sixteen patients received an immunotherapy drug, followed by nine doses of the vaccine, which was administered through an intravenous drip.

Half of the patients responded well and had activated T cells that recognized the tumor cells.

First cancer vaccine tailored to each patient can train the immune system to recognize and attack tumors Shutterstock

After 18 months, none of these 8 patients had a recurrence of the cancer. Of the remaining patients, 6 have relapsed, according to Express.

Dr Balachandran said larger trials are needed but early results suggest that patients who respond well may not develop cancer.

Balachandran explains that it takes 9 infusions, 8 main doses and a booster dose – because training the body to attack its own cells is much more difficult than introducing an invading pathogen like a vaccine. Covid-19.

Mr Balachandran added: “We hope to be able to test this mRNA technology on other cancers more widely from here.

Professor Özlem Türeci, co-founder of BioNTech, said the results of this phase 1 study were encouraging. We wanted to further evaluate these early results in a larger study Express.