A vaccine designed to fight cancer cells has shown promising signs in an early trial.
Tests are underway to potentially develop a new treatment for people with advanced cancers.
The cancer jab is designed to prime the body to recognise and fight cancer cells.
It has now shown it could stimulate the immune system to help treat the disease more effectively.
Scientists on the project described the results as ‘an important first step’ towards a potential new treatment.
Around 167,000 people die from cancer in the UK every year, meaning 460 people on average each day.
Now the pharmaceutical company Moderna – known for one of the Covid-19 vaccines – is developing a jab known as mRNA-4359.
It is aimed at people with advanced melanoma, lung cancer and other solid tumour cancers.
How the cancer jab works
It uses mRNA technology, similar to Covid-19 vaccines, which teaches the immune system how cancer cells differ from healthy cells and mobilises it to destroy them.
For the first in-human study of the treatment, 19 patients with advanced solid tumours were given between one and nine doses of mRNA-4359.
Researchers found tumours did not grow and no new tumours appeared in eight of the 16 patients who were evaluated.
They said the treatment was ‘well tolerated without serious side effects.’
The first person in the UK to receive the jab was an 81-year-old man who wished to remain anonymous.
He was given the vaccine at Hammersmith Hospital in late October last year.
The patient has malignant melanoma skin cancer which is not responding to treatment.
Chief investigator Dr Debashis Sarker, a clinical reader in experimental oncology at King’s College London and a consultant in medical oncology at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation trust, said: ‘This study evaluating an mRNA cancer immunotherapy is an important first step in hopefully developing a new treatment for patients with advanced cancers.
‘We have shown that the therapy is well tolerated without serious side effects and can stimulate the body’s immune system in a way that could help to treat cancer more effectively.
‘However, as this study has only involved a small number of patients to date, it’s too early to say how effective this could be for people with advanced stage cancer.’
Now the study is enrolling patients with specific cancers – namely melanoma and non-small-cell lung cancer.
They will have low doses of mRNA-4359 with pembrolizuma, also known as Keytruda – an immunotherapy drug often given as part of chemotherapy.
Kyle Holen, senior vice president and health of development, therapeutics and oncology at Moderna, said they are ‘encouraged’ by the results showing the jab’s potential to ‘elicit strong antigen-specific T-cell responses while maintaining a manageable safety profile.’
‘This novel approach could be a key component in shifting the tumour microenvironment toward a more immune-permissive state, offering potential hope for patients with advanced solid tumours,’ he added.
Dr Sarkar described the project as ‘a huge international effort across the UK, USA, Spain and Australia.’
Other cancer jab trials
The mRNA-4359 trial is just one of several studies testing the effectiveness of jabs that are designed to fight cancer.
Another one includes a trial of personalised mRNA jab for melanoma – mRNA-4157 (V940) – which was given to a British patient earlier this year.
Scientists use a tumour sample along with DNA sequencing and AI to create a bespoke jab specific to the patient’s tumour.
In August, Janusz Racz, 67, from London, became the first person to get the lung cancer trial jab developed by BioNTech called BNT116.
He got the trial vaccine months after being diagnosed with lung cancer in May and soon after starting chemo and radiotherapy.
The aim of the lung cancer jab trial is to enroll 130 patients at 34 research sites in seven countries, with six based in England and Wales.
Around 48,000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer each year in the UK alone, resulting in 35,000 deaths.
In July last year, the UK government signed an agreement with BioNTech to provide up to 10,000 patients with precision cancer immunotherapies by 2030.
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