A GROUNDBREAKING cancer vaccine reversed the disease in nine patients, a study has shown.
All nine patients enrolled in a Yale University study testing out personalised treatments against advanced kidney cancer remained disease free three years after receiving doses.
Nine patients with advanced kidney cancer remained disease free after receiving personalised vaccines[/caption]
The vaccines trained immune cells to hunt down cancer cells lingering after surgery[/caption]
Each person’s vaccine was created by examining the DNA and RNA in their tumour, which identified individual mutations in each of their cancers that weren’t present in normal, healthy cells.
Like all vaccines, personalised cancer vaccines train the body’s immune system to hunt down and destroy a threat.
The nine participants had all received surgery to treat stage three or four kidney cancer.
So in their case, the threat their immune systems were being trained to detect were any cancer cells remaining after surgery.
The vaccine was able to snuff out lingering cancerous cells while avoiding healthy cells after being fine tuned to each patient’s biology.
Currently approved immune therapies for kidney cancer aim to “release the brakes” on the immune system to allow it to attack cancer cells, but they don’t tell the immune cells where to go.
As a result, some patients don’t see any benefits from the treatments, while others may experience side effects from an overactive immune system.
Dr David Braun, the study’s first author and researcher at the Yale Cancer Center, said: “The idea behind this trial was to specifically steer the immune system toward a target that is unique to the tumour.”
Kidney cancer is the sixth most common type of the disease in the UK, with around 13,800 new cases diagnosed every year.
In the trial, the personalised cancer jab was designed to sniff out and destroy specific mutated cells that drive tumour growth in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC).
Renal cell carcinoma accounts for 80 per cent of all kidney cancer types in UK, and ccRCC makes up about 80 per cent of these.
The standard treatment for patients with ccRCC is currently surgery to remove tumours, followed by immunotherapy with a targeted therapy to blast remaining cells.
However, many patients will see their cancer return, study authors noted, saying “there remains a high unmet clinical need to improve outcomes after surgery for patients with high-risk RCC”.
Dr Braun said: “For patients with high-risk ccRCC, we want to improve post-surgery treatment options that reduce the risk of the cancer coming back.”
Yale researchers conducted a phase I trial, which is used to assess whether a new treatment is safe or effective.
The nine patients received multiple doses of the personalised cancer vaccine. Four of them received just the vaccine, while the remaining five also had small doses of the immunotherapy drug ipilimumab.
Seven patients had stage three disease, and two had stage four kidney cancer.
All nine patients had an immune response to the vaccine within three weeks.
In seven of nine patients, those T cells were capable of recognising the patient’s tumour.
Cancer-fighting T cells remained elevated throughout the study and for years afterwards, researchers observed.
Dr Braun said: “This strong and durable activation in T cells was encouraging and indicates that we’re able to generate a long-lasting, anti-cancer immune response with the vaccine.”
While patients typically experienced flu-like symptoms for one to two days after their vaccinations, none experienced severe side effects.
Researchers also said there were no significant differences in outcomes between patients who received ipilimumab along with the jab and those who received the cancer vaccine.
While the trial’s results – published in the journal Nature – are promising, researchers said trials with more patients are needed to confirm the vaccine’s effectiveness and explore its full potential.
Dr Braun is currently conducting a phase II study with patients receiving a similar personalised cancer vaccine with the targeted therapy, Keytruda, also known as pembrolizumab.
Personalised cancer jabs are also being tested in the UK, with the NHS matching patients to clinical trials for their specific tumours through its new Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad.
Jab maker BioNTech has signed a deal to enrol 10,000 UK patients on to cancer vaccine trials by 2030.
Preparing for the future
By Sam Blanchard, Health Correspondent
CANCER vaccines are an exciting prospect because they use the body’s own immune system to fight tumours, reducing the collateral damage to healthy cells which is a risk of surgery, radiotherapy and chemo.
Hopefully this will mean people can be treated for longer without the fear of crippling or even deadly side effects, improving their survival chances.
Research is still in the early stages so the number of patients who can try out the vaccines in the next couple of years is likely to be small.
They will probably also be very expensive, as there is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between the clinic and lab as every vaccine is tailored to the individual patient.
But the NHS’ Cancer Vaccines Launch Pad will help pharmaceutical companies study and develop the vaccines, set up the NHS infrastructure for if they become routinely used in future – and offer hope for patients along the way.
