2023-06-04 10:46:26
A French laboratory is working on the development of a vaccine to prevent relapses of ENT cancers. The first conclusive therapeutic trials were presented this weekend.
A hope for millions of patients around the world. The French laboratory Transgene has designed a vaccine to prevent the recurrence of cancers affecting the ENT sphere (otolaryngeal). The results of the therapeutic trials proved conclusive and were presented this weekend at the Congress of Oncology in Chicago, USA.
“Patients receive 20 injections of this vaccine in subcutaneous form. It educates the patient’s immune system to possibly identify tumor cells that are still present in (their) body”, explains to BFMTV Professor Christophe Le Tourneau, head of clinical trials at the Institut Curie.
According to the Curie Institute, ENT cancers are the fourth cause of cancer in France, with 14,000 new cases detected each year.
A unique vaccine for each patient
This treatment is a world first. What also makes it unique is its individualized formula for each patient. Indeed, a piece of the tumor is taken from the patient during the surgery and is analyzed in order to select the most risky mutations.
“You have to find this needle in this haystack: the 30 best mutations among the 3000 and it is done with an artificial intelligence which has learned from many pre-existing patients and which learns from each new patient that we treat”, specifies to BFMTV Hedi Ben Brahim, adviser to the president of the Transgene laboratory.
The challenge is to develop a “really effective vaccine that will train the immune system on the relevant points to recognize and attack cancer”.
No relapses in the group of vaccinated patients
Promising, the tests, carried out on a still small group, have passed the first phase. Of the 16 patients treated, none relapsed more than 10 months after the injection.
“Among the 16 untreated patients, two had a relapse”, indicates on the other hand the professor, sign of a “beginning of benefit” of the serum.
“This is extraordinary news”, also greeted on our set Professor David Khayat, oncologist, founder of the National Cancer Institute.
“Crazy times in cancer treatment”
“It is still very experimental”, recalls however the doctor who underlines that the vaccine developed concerns still specific types of cancer and only the prevention of relapses.
The doctor wants to be optimistic despite everything, believing that “the era is crazy in terms of cancer treatment”. “Every two, three years, we have a new way of treating the cancer that comes out,” he rejoices, referring in particular to immunotherapy.
The second phase of the trials will soon be launched. The laboratory is also working on another vaccine that would treat relapses of ovarian cancer.
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