Hopes for pancreatic cancer from an mRna vaccine. « Medicine in the Library

Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) have tested mRNA vaccine technology as a cancer treatment.

New customized messenger RNA vaccine raises hopes for the most common and aggressive form of pancreatic cancer, known as pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: In Phase 1 clinical trial, it caused an increase in the immune response in patients and delayed recurrence in half of cases, when used in combination with other treatments.

Vaccines are tailored to each person. They use proteins in pancreatic tumors, called neoantigens, to warn the immune system that the cancer cells are foreign. The hope is that the vaccine will reduce the risk of the cancer returning after the main tumor has been surgically removed. mRNA vaccines train the body to protect itself from its own abnormal cancer cells.

Now the results of the phase 1 study, reported on “Nature“, suggest that vaccines elicit an effective and long-lasting immune response. In 8 of the 16 patients studied, the vaccines activated powerful immune cells, called T cells, that can recognize a patient’s specific pancreatic cancer. These patients also showed delayed recurrence of their pancreatic tumors, suggesting that the vaccine-activated T cells may have the desired effect: keeping pancreatic tumors in check.

“These exciting results indicate that we may be able to use vaccines as pancreatic cancer therapy“, says Dr. Balachandran. “The evidence supports our strategy to tailor each vaccine to each patient’s cancer.”

Read abstract of the article:
Personalized RNA neoantigen vaccines stimulate T cells in pancreatic cancer.
Rojas, LA, Sethna, Z., Soares, KC et al.
Nature (2023).

Source and information: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK)