Experts called the results of the combined immunotherapy with personalized mRNA technology an exciting advance in the field of cancer vaccines.
April 16, 2023, 3:01 PM UTCIn 2019, Gary Keblish got a diagnosis from his surgeon that left him stunned. The flat, dark-brown mole he’d had on his back for as long as he could remember had turned into a melanoma that was already advanced, putting him at risk of dying.Fortunately, Keblish was able sign on for a small clinical trial testing a preventive vaccine that might possibly keep the disease from coming back.
One of the ways cancer evades the immune system is to fool the body into thinking the threat is over, at which point the natural braking system that prevents the immune system from staying constantly on kicks in. Weber compares the way pembrolizumab works to cutting a stuck brake cable on a car so it can go forward.
In the trial, 40% of the patients who received only the immunotherapy drug had a recurrence of their cancer during the two-year follow-up. In comparison, 22.4% of patients who got the drug plus the vaccine had a recurrence, leading to a difference of 44% between the two groups. The trial’s results are “very exciting,” said Dr. Thomas Marron, director of the Early Phase Trials Unit at the Tisch Cancer Institute and an associate professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
The researchers anticipate the phase 3 trial, scheduled to launch this summer, to show similar results. With follow-up and monitoring, it could be at least two years before data is registered with the Food and Drug Administration and up to three years before the vaccine combination would be approved for use in patients, Weber said.
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