Trials of the world’s first “customized” (that is, tailored to a specific patient) vaccine once morest melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, have begun in the UK.
One of the first to receive a dose of the experimental drug was 52-year-old Steve Young, who underwent surgery last August to remove the area of skin from the scalp where the tumor was located.
The vaccine should help Steve’s immune system recognize and destroy any remaining cancer cells in his body.
Doctors really hope that this will prevent the disease from returning, since a new tumor will no longer be able to form in the vaccinated body.
The drug, which does not yet have a name, only the coding – mRNA-4157 (V940), is based on the same technology that is used in two widely used Covid-19 vaccines. In Britain, the vaccine is undergoing the last, phase III clinical trials.
Doctors at the University College London Clinic (UCLH) decided to take extra precaution, so along with the vaccine, volunteers also receive a dose of another drug, pembrolizumab (aka Keytruda), which also helps the immune system destroy cancer cells.
The combination treatment was developed jointly by two American companies, Moderna and Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD), and is so far only available to patients in clinical trials.
In addition to Britain, the experiment will be carried out in parallel in several other countries – including Australia – to collect more data and understand whether it makes sense to expand the trials further.
The vaccine is purely individual, that is, the final composition of the administered drug is selected in accordance with the characteristics of a particular patient.
And even more precisely – in accordance with the unique genetic code of a particular tumor.
In this case (at least in theory), the drug should provoke in the patient’s body the production of antibodies specifically tailored to destroy cancer cells – and only them.
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2024-05-05 08:06:04
