A personalized treatment based on messenger RNA has given good initial results in the treatment of this cancer.
This is the review Nature which relays the results of a personalized vaccine based on messenger RNA and developed by BioNTech and Roche. It targets aggressive forms of pancreatic cancer.
At the end of the first test phase of a clinical trial, half of the 16 participants, from whom a tumor had been removed, had produced cells that can repair cancerous ones and prevent their reappearance.
A particularly deadly cancer
Nature, which reminds us that pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly because it is detected late, summarizes:
These data are extremely promising and will provide the framework for a planned new clinical trial.
The clinical trial targeted pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, which is by far the most common. Le Parisien reports that “Only about 10% of patients with PDAC are alive within two years of diagnosis”.
After 18 months, no relapse
For half of the 16 trial participants, in whom the immune response was detectable, there was no evidence of cancer recurrence 18 months after surgery, when the median time to recurrence was 13.4 months in non-responders.
The authors of the study specify that the patients received a dose of an inhibitor drug: “we think they can work in conjunction with these vaccines to boost the immune system”.
Wait for the next phases
Even if these initial results are promising, two phases still need to be validated before the US health authorities potentially give the green light.
And the researchers cannot to date formally rule out that external factors could have contributed to the improvement of the results in certain subjects. Be that as it may, mRNA technology offers real hope for treating many diseases.