Cancer therapy breakthrough: COVID vaccine technology shows sustained effectiveness

It is noted that significant breakthroughs in the development of cancer vaccines, considered one of the most dynamic areas of oncology research, are occurring amid mixed signals from U.S. officials regarding the benefits and safety of this technology.

This month, more than 130 studies on cancer vaccines were presented at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.

Leading vaccine developers attended the event, including BioNTech, Moderna, Merck, and Pfizer.

The companies are testing mRNA-based therapies in nine large and mid-sized clinical trials targeting lung, kidney, bladder, and pancreatic cancers, and may receive initial results this year from a major confirmatory melanoma trial.

Reuters notes that oncology mRNA vaccines are being developed as personalized treatments: a tumor sample is taken from a patient, unique mutations are identified, and an mRNA vaccine is created specifically for that disease to prevent recurrence.

Thus, although cuts in federal grants in the United States create obstacles for academic institutions, large pharmaceutical companies continue advancing the technology globally, expanding trials in Europe and Asia.

From early discovery to potential breakthrough

Ten years ago, Dr. Vinod Balachandran from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center was among the first scientists to recognize the potential of mRNA for treating even the deadliest cancers.

He observed that in rare cases, some patients survived pancreatic cancer — a disease previously thought to be “invisible” to the immune system.

Research showed that in these cases, the patients’ immune systems were able to recognize and attack their tumors. The question was how to make this phenomenon more common.

Balachandran believed that mRNA, which can be produced very quickly, could be used to create personalized vaccines based on specific mutations found exclusively in patients’ tumors after surgery.

In December 2019, a phase 1 clinical trial began involving 16 patients. The study tested a combination of chemotherapy, the immunotherapy drug Tecentriq by Roche, and a custom mRNA vaccine from BioNTech targeting mutated proteins based on individual tumor profiles.

At the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in April, Balachandran reported that among eight pancreatic cancer patients whose immune systems responded to the vaccine, seven were still alive after six years.

A global phase 2 trial involving 260 patients is now underway to confirm these results.

The drug is administered intravenously to rapidly stimulate the immune system against aggressive brain cancer, which has a five-year survival rate of less than 7%.