The future of cancer treatment could involve personalized vaccines designed to manage or even prevent relapses – at least if new research published on Thursday continues to expand. In a small clinical study, patients at high risk for melanoma who were given such a vaccine were able to develop long-term, Sustainable immune response to their cancer, scientists said. They also survived four years after initial treatment, most of whom were actively disease-free.
Cancer vaccines have been a popular target for scientists for decades. There are two vaccines that can protect against viral diseases that are known to increase the risk of certain cancers, HPV and hepatitis B. But developing an effective vaccine that can directly prevent cancer has been a more difficult task, due to the nature of cancer. First, cancer cells are mutant versions of the cells found in our body, so our immune system cannot recognize them as an enemy as easily as a virus. And because every cancer is specific to each person, it’s not that simple to create a vaccine that works for everyone.
In recent years, however, there has been progress in developing cancer vaccines at a more personalized level. The researchers found that tumors carry proteins on the surface of their cells that are not found in normal cells and can make them look different from our immune system. These proteins are called neoantigen. By creating vaccines that train the immune system to better recognize these neoantigens, scientists theorize, we can give our body a better chance in fighting a familial cancer.
Scientists at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Massachusetts and elsewhere have been working on one of these vaccines (called NeoVax) for skin cancer melanoma, as well as glioblastoma, the most common form of brain cancer that is very difficult to treat. . While their work has display that the vaccine is well tolerated and appears to create an immune response in patients, so far only short-term results have been available. Their new paper, published in Nature Medicine, suggests that their vaccine works in the long term.
“These neoantigens are the result of mutations found in a particular tumor – it is something created individually. So, our vaccines need to be adapted to a patient’s cancer, “said study author Patrick Ott. But what’s new is that, using genomics and sequencing, we were able to identify these mutations much faster and more cost-effectively than before. ”
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They administered NeoVax to eight patients considered at high risk for future, possibly fatal, recurrences of advanced melanoma. They then monitored their health for the next four years, taking regular blood samples to study the body’s immune response to cancer, especially tumor-specific T cells.
The vaccine was given to patients about 18 weeks after surgery to remove the tumor. Ott and his team found that volunteers continued to transport neoantigen-specific T cells, their vaccine trained the immune system to remember. In some people, they also saw T cells that recognized other tumor-specific neoantigens. This is an indication that their immune system is adapting to any persistent tumor cells in the body, creating even more weapons against them. All eight patients were still alive after almost four years, six appearing disease-free at the last check-in.
At this point, it takes at least three months from diagnosing a person for scientists like Ott to create a personalized vaccine. But it is possible that one day these vaccines could be created in a much shorter time, following a simple visit by a doctor. And while it may not be the “universal” cancer vaccine we all hope for, Ott sees no reason why these vaccines could not be made in the end to help prevent relapses of any type of cancer.
Vaccines can probably be combined with other treatments. Two patients from the study were diagnosed with cancer that has spread elsewhere immune control point inhibitors, drugs that allow the immune system to better target tumor cells. In these patients, the group found evidence that tumor-specific T cells found their way to metastatic tumors.
In the future, Ott and his team hope to hone their vaccination technology to create even stronger immune responses that, combined with drugs such as inhibitors of immune checkpoints, can manage advanced cancers. He is also now testing his vaccine with other cancers, while continuing to monitor existing patients.