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Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. There are very few symptoms in the earliest stages when surgery would be most effective. PDAC has claimed the lives of many well-known people--Alex Trebeck, Steve Jobs, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Aretha Franklin, Luciano Pavarotti, and Michael Landon to name several. And now, there may be hope. A recent NIH-funded study by the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center uses mRNA technology to create a personalized anti-cancer vaccine. From the link:
After surgery to remove PDAC, the team sent tumor samples from 19 people to partners at BioNTech, the company that produced one of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. BioNTech performed gene sequencing on the tumors to find proteins that might trigger an immune response. They then used that information to create a personalized mRNA vaccine for each patient. Each vaccine targeted up to 20 neoantigens.
Customized vaccines were successfully created for 18 of the 19 study participants. The process, from surgery to delivery of the first dose of the vaccine, took an average of about nine weeks.
The study patients also received standard chemotherapy and multiple doses of a monoclonal antibody that prevents malignant cells from suppressing the immune system. 16 patients stayed healthy enough to be vaccinated. In half of these, the vaccine activated T-cells that could recognize and attack residual cancer cells. After a year and a half, the cancer had not returned in any of the patients who had a strong T-cell response to the vaccine.
Obviously, the vaccine doesn't work for everyone. But it's very significant when 50% of patients with one of the deadliest of all malignancies are cancer-free after 18 months.
An mRNA vaccine to treat pancreatic cancer
After surgery to remove PDAC, the team sent tumor samples from 19 people to partners at BioNTech, the company that produced one of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. BioNTech performed gene sequencing on the tumors to find proteins that might trigger an immune response. They then used that information to create a personalized mRNA vaccine for each patient. Each vaccine targeted up to 20 neoantigens.
Customized vaccines were successfully created for 18 of the 19 study participants. The process, from surgery to delivery of the first dose of the vaccine, took an average of about nine weeks.
The study patients also received standard chemotherapy and multiple doses of a monoclonal antibody that prevents malignant cells from suppressing the immune system. 16 patients stayed healthy enough to be vaccinated. In half of these, the vaccine activated T-cells that could recognize and attack residual cancer cells. After a year and a half, the cancer had not returned in any of the patients who had a strong T-cell response to the vaccine.
Obviously, the vaccine doesn't work for everyone. But it's very significant when 50% of patients with one of the deadliest of all malignancies are cancer-free after 18 months.
An mRNA vaccine to treat pancreatic cancer
