that’s what tumors it can cure

Modern announced the revolution: by 2030 we could have personalized mRna vaccines against cancer, cardiovascular diseases and autoimmune diseases. Enthusiasm is so much though Rino Rappuoli, microbiologist and scientific director of the Siena Biotechnopole, prefers to show caution. The reason is simple: “First: anti-cancer RNA vaccines will only work for those with multiple cellular mutations, i.e. lung, stomach, colon and part of the breast tumors”. Second: “the vaccines to prevent tumors for now will concern those of viral origin, including multiple sclerosis, even if it is not a tumor. But to prevent others, there is still a long way to go”.

In any case, this is just the beginning and looks promising. Reached by The printthe expert speaks of a “turning point”, because “building vaccines capable of curing tumors is a dream that has been cultivated since 1920 but which until now it only generated failures“. Now therefore we could see the light at the end of the tunnel: “For the first time we have clinical evidence of efficacy, even if the Moderna RNA vaccine works combined with the monoclonal ‘Keytruda‘, one of the most marketed anticancer drugs in the world“. It is a drug that awakens T lymphocytes. The latter, in the presence of a tumor, fall asleep, awakening them instead are hurled against the tumor cells. So the limits of effectiveness are not few .

Moderna’s vaccine, in fact, “contains 34 peptides that are mutated in cancer cells, called neoantigens. At that point, the T lymphocytes awakened by the monoclonal have new very specific targets to attack”. The results are good, but not excellent: “Clinical trials conducted on two groups, one in monoclonal therapy only, the other treated together with the RNA vaccine – concludes Rappuoli – have shown that in these latter patients there is a 44 percent improvement of tumor recurrence or death compared to those treated with monoclonal alone”. For this reason, the vaccine may work less “where there are fewer mutations, such as pancreatic cancer or glioblastoma, better in those with more mutations, such as lung, stomach, colon, while breast cancer has a number of mutations in between.”