A vaccine for pancreatic cancer could serve as a promising new therapy.
At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York, an experimental approach to treating the cancer with a messenger RNA (mRNA)-based therapeutic vaccine "continues to show potential" in reducing the risk of the disease returning after surgery, according to a press release.
Results from the phase 1 clinical trial, published in the journal Nature, revealed that the vaccine triggered an immune response in a small patient group.
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This immune-cell activation persisted for nearly four years after treatment, the release stated.
Patients who received the vaccine and showed an immune system response were more likely to remain cancer-free by their three-year follow-up.
Vinod Balachandran, MD, principal investigator of the trial and senior study author at MSK, stated his optimism about the efficacy of this treatment.
"We find that with RNA vaccine technology, we can teach the immune system to recognize pancreatic cancer, and this immune response could potentially last for many years," he said.
"The ability to trigger a robust, long-lasting immune response is a requisite feature for any cancer vaccine."
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As pancreatic cancer is "difficult to treat," Balachandran shared his surprise that the immune system responded in some patients.
"We are encouraged to see that our approach can teach the immune system to recognize pancreatic cancer, that the immune response is potent and that it may potentially impact patients," he said.
"Although the findings are promising, these vaccines are still in the early stages of testing," Balachandran said.
The team is planning a larger study "to further test these therapeutic cancer vaccines in patients with surgically removable pancreatic cancer."
Of the 16 participants, the vaccine stimulated an immune response in half of them. The cancer vaccine was personalized for each participant to target specific proteins found in their form of the disease.
The patients also received an immunotherapy drug (atezolizumab) and standard-of-care chemotherapy after receiving surgery.
Therapeutic cancer vaccines like this one, referred to as autogene cevumeran, are meant to treat the cancer instead of preventing it, by training the immune system to "recognize cancer cells as foreign," according to the researchers.
The vaccine is meant to target early stages of cancer that have not spread, where tumors can be surgically removed, to "help delay or prevent recurrence."
Balachandran noted that this approach could potentially be applied to other forms of cancer as well.
"For patients with pancreatic cancer, our latest results continue to support the approach of using personalized mRNA vaccines to target neoantigens in each patient’s tumor," he said.
"If you can do this in pancreatic cancer, theoretically you may be able to develop therapeutic vaccines for other cancer types."
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Pancreatic cancer remains one of the deadliest cancers, as only about 13% of patients are alive five years following diagnosis, according to MSK and the American Cancer Society.
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Common therapies like chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapies are "largely ineffective" against pancreatic cancer, MSK stated, which makes new therapies "urgently needed."
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