2023-05-15 07:04:58
Pancreatic cancer treatment│Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most deadly cancer in Hong Kong. Even following surgery to remove the tumor, there is still a chance of recurrence. BioNTech uses the mRNA vaccine technology in the development of the new crown vaccine to develop an innovative vaccine to prevent the recurrence of some pancreatic cancer patients following surgery, bringing new hope for the treatment of pancreatic cancer!
Written by: Hedy@Medical Inspire Physician. Thinking │ Source:《Nature》│Image source: Shutterstock
Pancreatic cancer treatment│A vaccine developed in the United States to prevent the recurrence of pancreatic cancer, and it is effective for half of the patients following small-scale testing!
Since the early symptoms of pancreatic cancer are not obvious, many patients do not realize the disease until the advanced stage of the cancer, thus delaying treatment and affecting the survival rate. Even following surgery, there is still a high chance of recurrence. BioNTech uses the knowledge of mRNA vaccines in the development of the new crown vaccine to find out the differences between tumors and normal cells and make vaccines to prevent some patients from relapse following surgery.
BioNTech has recruited 16 patients for clinical trials, all of whom have undergone tumor resection. The researchers took the tumor back, sequenced the gene of the patient’s normal cells, found out the mutation and made an mRNA vaccine, and then reinjected it into the patient. Patients need to have 8 injections, and the vaccine is injected into the blood. Results from the Phase 1 trial showed that the vaccine successfully elicited an effective and long-lasting immune response. Eight of the 16 patients were free of cancer recurrence 18 months following surgery. The vaccine primed their powerful immune cells (T cells), keeping the pancreatic cancer in check. One of the patients, who showed signs of cancer metastasizing to the liver at the time of surgery, was more completely eliminated following receiving the vaccine.
However, the other half of the patients showed signs of recurrence within 13 months following the operation. Due to the small scale of this study, large-scale experiments are still needed to prove it. Although this expensive therapy is not effective for every pancreatic cancer patient. But experts agree that for a disease with limited treatment options:
This is a promising development.
Because each person’s cancer cells mutate differently, the vaccine needs to be specially ordered. In the preliminary stage, under the premise that the vaccine cannot be mass-produced, it is estimated that a single dose of the vaccine will cost US$100,000, which is very valuable. Still, Dr. Anirban Maitra, a disease specialist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, emphasized:
This is the first demonstrable success of an mRNA vaccine for pancreatic cancer, and although the study is preliminary, I will call it a success. By that standard, it’s a major milestone!
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