‘Remarkable' pancreatic cancer jab offers longer survival hope for patients
Researchers described the findings as 'remarkable' and have already started testing the efficacy of the jab among a larger group of pancreatic and bowel cancer patients.
Pancreatic cancer has some of the poorest cancer survival rates because it is often not detected until it is advanced.
Many patients see their cancer unremitting, even after undergoing traditional treatments including chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Now a new vaccine has been developed to help harness the body's immune system to find and attack cancer cells.
The jab has shown promise in an early trial.
Pancreatic and bowel cancers frequently carry a mutation in a gene called KRAS. This mutation plays a key role in tumour growth and scientists developed the jab to recognise and attack KRAS-mutant cancer cells.
The jab is a new type of immunotherapy vaccine designed specifically to improve vaccine delivery to the lymph nodes, which act as filters for foreign substances in the body including cancer cells and infections.
The phase 1 trial involved 20 patients with pancreatic cancer and five patients with bowel cancer.
After an average follow-up time of almost 20 months, 68% of patients had developed strong immune responses specific to mutant KRAS tumour proteins.
Though the study showed that some responded more favourably compared to others.
Patients who had the strongest immune responses lived longer and stayed cancer free for longer than those with weaker responses.
On average pancreatic cancer patients survived about two years and five months after receiving the vaccine, according to the study, which has been published in the journal Nature Medicine.
At present, just three in 10 people diagnosed with the condition survive for a year.
Meanwhile the average time before the disease returned, also known as recurrence free survival, was more than 15 months.
While some cancer jabs are personalised to each patient, this jab, ELI-002 2P, has a single version which can be given to all patients.
This 'off-the-shelf' version means that it can be manufactured in bulk and given more rapidly.
Study lead Dr Zev Wainberg, from the University of California, Los Angeles, in the US, told the PA news agency: 'Pancreas cancer (patients) even after all standard treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation, still have very high risks of the cancer coming back.
'Our results show in the group of patients who had profound immune responses (17/25 68%) achieved had longer survival than we have expected in this cancer, quite a remarkable finding to occur in a phase 1 trial.'
He added: 'This is the first trial using a new platform, called AMP technology.
'The technology was invented by a material scientist engineer and immunology, Darrel Irvine, in his lab at MIT, and the platform was designed to improve vaccine delivery to lymph nodes which play a special role in the immune response.'
Asked about next steps, he added: 'We launched a randomised phase 2 based on the initial results from the Amplify-201 study in January 2024.
'The accrual of the 144 patients participating was very rapid for this trial, which completed enrolment last December, and we are looking forward to the results as follow up continues.'
Dr Chris Macdonald, head of research at the charity Pancreatic Cancer UK, said: 'Immunotherapy, and in particular cancer vaccines, hold so much opportunity in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, but so far the opportunity has not been realised.
'However in recent years, this is changing. This study is the latest in a rapidly progressing field.
'This early-stage study takes an important step, showing the effectiveness of an 'off-the-shelf' cancer vaccine, potentially breaking a reliance on having to generate a vaccine specifically for every individual patient.
'This approach saves time and is less costly and resource heavy, meaning more people could potentially benefit.
'The future is bright and if the momentum in this field continues to grow, more people could have the opportunity to benefit from immunotherapy, helping them to live better for longer.'
Dr Dani Edmunds, research information manager at Cancer Research UK, added: 'Although we've helped to double cancer survival in the UK in the past 50 years, progress has not been the same for pancreatic cancer which remains hard to treat.
'Therefore, it's promising to see that vaccines could help people with pancreatic and bowel cancer live cancer-free for longer.
'The results suggest that the vaccine can boost the immune system against cancer in some people following standard treatment.
'These people survived and stayed free from disease for longer than people who didn't get as strong an immune boost following vaccination.
'Larger controlled trials are needed to confirm these initial findings about the benefits of the vaccine.
'More research is needed to understand why some people benefit from the vaccine while others don't so that we can make sure we're beating cancer for everyone.'
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