Pancreatic cancer’s five-year survival rate is currently only 13% and is responsible for over 5% of all cancer deaths in the UK. Unfortunately, the symptoms of this disease often only appear once the cancer has already spread to other parts of the body. Pancreatic cancer starts to develop when pancreas cells begin to grow uncontrollably. It also has the lowest survival rate of all types of cancer. However, a new clinical trial has revealed a potential breakthrough in treating the world’s deadliest cancer. It involves treating patients with an mRNA cancer vaccine that stimulated an immune response. This response may potentially reduce the chances of the disease returning after surgery in some patients.
A Potential Treatment for The World’s Deadliest Cancer?
Phase 1 of the trial was recently published in the Nature journal and found that the vaccine was able to activate tumor-specific immune cells. These immune cells were still detected in the body almost four years after treatment in some patients. Moreover, the patients whose immune responses had been induced by the vaccine had less chance of the cancer returning after three years. These results suggest that the therapeutic vaccine mobilizes anti-tumor cells that are capable of recognizing pancreatic cancers years after treatment. The therapeutic mRNA cancer vaccine used in phase 1 of the study is called autogene cevumeran (BNT122, RO7198457). The vaccine was customized for each participant based on their tumor’s particular mutational profile. The study found that the vaccine produced no serious side effects and prompted an immune response in 50% of the 16 participants.
While we think of vaccines as a treatment that typically prevents a disease from developing, therapeutic cancer vaccines such as this one are designed to treat them. These vaccines deliver proteins to the body that are exclusively found in cancer. This allows the immune system to learn how to recognize the cells and consider them as foreign to the body. Up to now, vaccines that result in long-term responses have remained rather elusive. However, new studies such as this one may soon change the field forever. They are mainly focusing on treating the early stage of cancer, before it has spread and can still be removed surgically. By taking the vaccine at this stage, the researchers hope to delay a recurrence, or ideally prevent one from occurring at all.
How the Trial Worked
For the trial, the tumors of the participants were removed and sent to one of the research partners of the study, BioNTech. The tumor was then used to make a personalized mRNA vaccine for the patient and administered alongside chemotherapy and immunotherapy. When cancer cells divide, they typically produce a series of genetic errors. The vaccines are designed to target any mutations that the cancer produced. These mutations prompt a response from the immune system, allowing them to recognize the cancer cells. Out of the 16 participants, the seven whose immune systems did not respond to the treatment experienced a return of the cancer in the following three year period. Out of the 8 patients whose immune systems did respond, only two people experienced a return of symptoms in the same period.
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The researchers hope that this study may eventually lead to therapeutic vaccines for other types of cancer too. As Dr, Balachandran put it, “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. If you can do this in pancreas cancer, theoretically you may be able to develop therapeutic vaccines for other cancer types.” At the moment, existing treatments, such as radiation, chemotherapy, immunotherapies and other targeted therapies have proven largely ineffective in treating pancreatic cancer. Therefore, finding new and effective treatments is a major priority if we wish to help those suffering from the world’s deadliest cancer type.
The Bottom Line
Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most difficult cancers to treat, but this forward-thinking study potentially provides new hope. The customized mRNA vaccine’s success in triggering a long-lasting immune response in half of the participants points to a potential breakthrough in cancer recurrence prevention. While additional research is still needed, this trial marks a significant step toward to treating one of the world’s deadliest cancers. If future trials corroborate these findings, customized cancer vaccinations could transform treatment not only for pancreatic cancer, but for many other types of cancer as well.
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