‘Remarkable' new vaccine shown to slow down world's deadliest cancer in move to ‘beat cancer for everyone'
FRESH HOPE 'Remarkable' new vaccine shown to slow down world's deadliest cancer in move to 'beat cancer for everyone'
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THOUSANDS of Brits with cancer have been given fresh hope as a new jab could slow down the disease and boost survival.
The vaccine, described as "remarkable" by scientists, has shown promising results in the fight against one of the deadliest forms of the disease - pancreatic cancer.
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The new jab trains the immune system to attack mutated genes found in many pancreatic and bowel cancers
Credit: Getty - Contributor
Early trials have proven the jab's ability to supercharge the immune system, enabling it to attack cancer cells and potentially prolong life for patients.
More trials are now underway among a larger group of pancreatic and bowel cancer patients, as experts warn it is "too early" to say whether the jab will work at scale.
Pancreatic cancer, which affects around 10,000 Brits each year, is the deadliest cancer in the world.
And only about seven out of 100 of them will survive it for five years or more, according to Cancer Research UK.
This is partly because it shows no symptoms until it has already spread to other parts of the body, making it incredibly hard to treat.
While surgery, chemotherapy and radiation can help extend life, they rarely offer a cure.
But researchers are now optimistic that this new vaccine could change that, providing a vital new treatment option other therapies fall short.
'Our results show that in the group of patients who had profound immune responses 68 per cent) we saw longer survival than we have expected in this cancer,' said Dr Zev Wainberg, study lead from the University of California, Los Angeles.
'Quite a remarkable finding to occur in a phase 1 trial.'
The jab targets a mutated gene called KRAS, which is found in many pancreatic and bowel cancers.
I'm a doctor, NEVER ignore these pancreatic cancer symptoms
It's a type of immunotherapy vaccine designed to improve the immune system's ability to fight cancer by delivering the vaccine directly to the lymph nodes, which play a crucial role in immune defence.
In the phase 1 trial, 20 pancreatic cancer patients and five bowel cancer patients received the vaccine.
After 20 months, 68 per cent of patients developed strong immune responses.
On average, the pancreatic cancer patients survived around two years and five months after receiving the vaccine, according to the study published in Nature Medicine.
'Patients with the strongest immune responses lived longer and stayed cancer-free for more than 15 months,' Dr Zev added.
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.
Dr Chris Macdonald, head of research at Pancreatic Cancer UK, said: 'This study is a big step forward in treating pancreatic cancer.
"The 'off-the-shelf' vaccine approach is quicker, cheaper, and could help many more people.'
The study has already led to a phase 2 trial with 144 pancreatic and bowel cancer patients, with results expected in the coming months.
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."
Dr Magnus Dillon, an oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said: "It's extremely promising to have a vaccine that seems to stimulate T cell activity in KRAS-driven tumours – these are generally 'immune cold', so therapies which stimulate immune responses in this group of patients are much needed.
'Many patients have these KRAS mutations, so an off-the-shelf vaccine could benefit lots of people – it saves the cost and time required to make a personalised vaccine.
'However, it's a bit early to definitively tell whether this will work to prevent cancer relapse in this group of patients who have had all disease removed at surgery - larger studies will be needed.
"A bigger challenge is to see if the activated immune system could also work against established tumours, which have many ways to avoid immune attack and prevent immune cells from entering.'
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