New mRNA cancer vaccines can shrink tumors and prevent recurrence

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Reddit
• Tumblr
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• RSS Feed
• Link

COVID-19 vaccine technology can actually fight cancer! New cancer vaccines can shrink tumors and prevent recurrence

New mRNA cancer vaccines can shrink tumors and prevent recurrence.  According to the clinical trials of vaccines by oncologists, tumor vaccines may end the traditional treatment of cancer and may mean the “end of chemotherapy.”

For decades, cancer vaccines have become a form of immunotherapy, which can prevent the development of cancer or kill existing tumors by stimulating or restoring the body’s own immune system.

Speaking of mRNA technology may be unfamiliar to more people. In fact, the original intention of this technology is to develop anti-cancer vaccines. The COVID-19 vaccine is a by-product of the process of developing cancer vaccines.

At present, there are at least a dozen cancer vaccines in the world. The CEO of BioNTech said that he expects to see the first cancer mRNA vaccine on the market within 2022.

mRNA technology belongs to a new generation of immunotherapy, which means “messenger ribonucleic acid”. mRNA is a natural molecule that can send instructions to human cells and then produce target proteins or antigens to stimulate the body’s immune response.

The advantage of using mRNA technology to develop tumor vaccines is that it can easily express more than 20 tumor antigens at the same time, so it is especially suitable for individualized treatment of cancer. Even small tumor sample tissues can collect all antigen information. So as to customize personalized tumor vaccines.

More than 30% of gastric cancer patients are progressing positively, and the tumor gradually shrinks and disappears

BionNTech currently has 10 mRNA cancer vaccines in different stages of testing, but they are all manufactured in roughly the same way.

When a cancer patient undergoes surgery, samples are collected from the removed tumor and sent to the BioNTech laboratory for analysis. Tumor cells have their own genetic code-these codes vary from patient to patient, but also to cancer type. Using this code, scientists can create synthetic mRNA to stimulate the production of proteins, such as those found on tumor cells, to help the immune system recognize and destroy cancer.

Because the antibody remains in the body even after the cancer disappears, the protective effect should be long-lasting.

Currently, BioNTech cancer vaccine is taken together with other immune-enhancing cancer drugs. Dr. Tureci said: “This is a universal treatment. You can basically treat any type of cancer.

She also added that the experiment is promising. They recruited more than 400 cancer patients who had received multiple treatments, and despite failures, they all produced a strong immune response. And fortunately,
More than 30% of gastric cancer patients have seen positive progress. The cancer continues to shrink or even disappear. Facts have proved that in some cases, cancer vaccines can prevent cancer from recurring.

Two real cases of cancer patients, the tumor disappeared or shrunk, igniting the hope of life!

1. Kidney cancer: Recurrence 9 months after kidney removal, tumor shrinkage by 37% after cancer vaccine

Gavin Grove, 49, was one of the first patients to benefit, and he was convinced that he would have died without a vaccine.

He used to be a taxi driver and was diagnosed with kidney cancer after fainting from a suspected heart attack in 2016. After staying in the cardiac ward for 12 days, the doctor realized that his attack was caused by a blood clot shed from a kidney tumor.

Subsequently, Gavin underwent a nephrectomy in the hospital. Unfortunately, a scan nine months later showed that the cancer had returned. He was referred to the Butte Cancer Center, where he was told that if he did not receive any treatment, he could only live for one year at most. “Even with standard treatment, you can only survive for about two years,” he said helplessly.

In 2019, Gavin began participating in clinical trials of mRNA cancer vaccines. He received 9 vaccines in 10 weeks and received intravenous immunotherapy cancer drugs every 3 weeks.

“After the injection, I had a severe fever and had to be taken to the hospital,” he recalled.

But 18 months after starting treatment, Gavin’s tumor shrank by 37%.

He still goes to the hospital every 24 weeks for booster vaccines and every 3 weeks for immunotherapy.

2. Bladder cancer: the standard treatment failed, the tumor metastasized, and the tumor disappeared completely after the vaccine treatment

Tina Wise, a 55-year-old patient from Chingford, said: “I have never heard of a cancer vaccine before, but I am willing to try anything.”

Three years ago, Tina was diagnosed with bladder cancer after discovering blood in her urine. After standard treatment failed and the cancer spread to her lungs and lymph nodes, she participated in a cancer vaccine trial in 2019.

She received 9 shots in 10 weeks, and a booster shot every 4 to 5 months.

For Tina, this change is significant. “Shortly after I started treatment, I received a call from the hospital nurse. She said, ‘oh my god, you never guess what it is,’ and I cheered up because I thought she would tell me bad news. But on the contrary,
She told me that my tumor had disappeared. They did not see any signs of cancer in the scan.

Cancer vaccines-immune upstarts, new hopes for overcoming cancer

Compared with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, cancer vaccines usually do not produce serious side effects. Unlike chemotherapy and radiotherapy that directly kill tumor cells and normal rapidly dividing cells in the body, cancer vaccines and other immunotherapies exert their effects by stimulating the body’s immune system. The anti-cancer effect is only for tumor cells, reducing the occurrence of side effects.

In addition to the aforementioned mRNA cancer vaccines, the world’s first and only cancer treatment vaccine approved by the US Food and Drug Administration is Provenge (sipuleucel-T), which reduces the risk of death by 45% and prolongs overall survival by 14.5 cases. In May, Provenge really lived up to expectations! For the first time, this vaccine realizes the idea of ​​using the patient’s own immune system to attack cancer cells.

Since Provenge (sipuleucel T) was approved by the FDA for the treatment of prostate cancer, tumor immunotherapy based on dendritic cells has become one of the research hotspots in many countries. There are already a large number of studies in different stages of clinical trials.

Research inventory of dendritic cell vaccines in major cancers

In fact, dendritic cell vaccines have already made many major breakthroughs in animal experiments and early clinical trials. Among them, the development of dendritic cell vaccines for brain tumor, kidney cancer, and melanoma has entered the phase III clinical trial stage and is expected to be marketed. Cancer-free Homeland (400-626-9916) specifically listed some blockbuster studies for everyone by consulting a large amount of literature. If you want to know more detailed clinical trials, you can call for consultation.

1. AV-GBM-1 vaccine-glioblastoma

On April 8, 2020, the Phase II clinical trial data of the new dendritic cell therapy AV-GBM-1 was announced. The study showed that this new vaccine is extremely effective in prolonging the mid-term overall survival of newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients. Great potential.

The 15-month overall survival rate of the 50 evaluable patients who received AV-GBM-1 treatment was 76%, while the 12-month and 15-month overall survival rates of the 287 patients in the control group who received standard treatment, respectively They are 61% and 48%. This shows that the 15-month overall survival rate of patients receiving AV-GBM-1 treatment has increased by 28%, and the effect is particularly significant.

AV-GBM-1 is a patient’s own specific dendritic cell vaccine. This therapy is theoretically applicable to all solid tumors.

2. Kidney cancer-ilixadencel vaccine

ilixadencel is an allogeneic dendritic cell vaccine. Studies have shown that ilixadencel combined with the targeted anticancer drug sunitinib in the first-line treatment of newly diagnosed patients with advanced metastatic renal cell carcinoma has doubled the overall remission rate and the complete remission rate compared with patients treated with sunitinib alone. Higher, the relief is more lasting!

The data is particularly eye-catching! As of the latest data in August 2020, the median overall survival of the ilixadencel group has not yet reached (vs 25.3 months), and the proportion of surviving patients is 43%, which is higher than 33% in the control group. And during the follow-up, 5 patients in the ilixadencel group were still alive!

It is worth celebrating that in May 2020, the FDA granted ilixadencel Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) qualification.

3. Melanoma-TLPLDC vaccine

At the 2020 ASCO-SITC Clinical Immuno-oncology Conference, the results of the subgroup analysis of the phase IIb clinical trial of the TLPLDC vaccine for the treatment of melanoma were announced.

In the analysis of the population following the clinical study protocol (PT), compared with the placebo group, the 24-month disease-free survival rate of the TLPLDC treatment group was significantly improved (62.9% vs 34.8%), indicating that the relative risk of disease recurrence was reduced by nearly 50%.

In the intention-to-treat (ITT) population analysis, the 24-month overall survival (OS) trend of the TLPLDC treatment group and the placebo group was stronger (86.4% vs 75.1%).

4. Dendritic cell vaccines for ovarian cancer, lung cancer, brain tumor, lymphoma, breast cancer, etc.

In addition, there are many types of dendritic cell vaccines that are particularly eye-catching.

For example, the DCVAC/OvCA vaccine for ovarian cancer can extend the overall survival of patients with advanced recurrence of ovarian cancer by more than one year, and reduce the risk of death from second-line treatment of ovarian cancer by 62%, and the overall survival can be significantly extended by 13.4 months, with a median The progression-free survival period was extended by 1.8 months.

For example, the lung cancer CCL21-dendritic vaccine, on the 56th day of vaccination, 25% of patients are in stable condition (the size of the tumor does not increase or decrease). In 54% of patients, CD8 cells infiltrated the tumor, and the expression of PD-L1 in patients also increased significantly after vaccination.

In addition, brain tumor DCVax-L vaccine, lymphoma dendritic cell vaccine, and breast cancer Her2 pulsed dendritic cell vaccine also have different degrees of research progress.

Expert Comments:

According to the clinical trials of vaccines by oncologists, tumor vaccines may end the one-size-fits-all treatment, which means “the end of chemotherapy.” Although there is still some time to go to market, it has been proven that this vaccine can effectively produce tumor cell antibodies in patients. This is a very important step.

The editor also believes that with the continuous development of various new anti-cancer drugs and anti-cancer technologies, the advanced cancer called “terminally ill” will become a chronic disease, which will fundamentally change the concept of cancer treatment. I also hope that cancer vaccines will play an important role in cancer treatment, and we are getting closer and closer to our dream of letting tumors go.

(source:internet, reference only)

Disclaimer of medicaltrend.org

Important Note: The information provided is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as medical advice.