Dermatologist examining patient's skin with dermascope, carefully looking at a mole for signs of ... [+]
British patients are trying a first-of-its-kind customized vaccine for skin cancer as part of a international trial.
The shots — which are tweaked for each participant — are “one of the most exciting developments in modern cancer therapy,” said University of Warwick molecular oncology professor Lawrence Young, who was not involved in the trial.
Personalized with genetic information from a patient’s own tumor, vaccines like this could one day be used against cancers in other parts of the body, including the bladder, the colon, the lungs and the kidneys.
The mRNA shots from Moderna and Merck help train a patient’s body to recognize and fight cancer cells. The hope is they’ll stop the disease from returning.
And they’ve already shown promise, significantly reducing the chance of melanoma coming back in patients involved in earlier studies. When used alongside an immunotherapy drug, the vaccines resulted in a 49% reduction in the risk of death or recurrence compared to using the drug alone.
“Interest in cancer vaccines has been reignited in recent years” by a growing understanding of the workings of the immunity system and by advances in mRNA technology, Young said.
This “makes developing a vaccine based on the immune profile of a patient’s own tumor much more straightforward,” the scientist said in a statement.
This final-stage phase-three trial pairs the shots with immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab (sold by Merck as Keytruda), an existing cancer treatment.
“Combining a personalized cancer vaccine to boost a specific immune response to the patient’s tumour along with using an antibody to release the brake on the body’s immune response” is “one of the most exciting developments in modern cancer therapy,” Young said.
Scientists are recruiting patients whose skin cancer has a high chance of returning for the experiment. Some people will receive the vaccine alongside pembrolizumab, while others will receive pembrolizumab alone.
The U.K. arm of the study is being led by University College London Hospital, where the first participants are receiving the treatment. Scientists want to ultimately enroll about 1,100 participants worldwide, at least 60 to 70 of whom would be treated in the U.K.
Steven Young, 52, from Hertfordshire in the east of England, was one of the first to participate in the trial. He had a melanoma removed from his scalp last year, according to the BBC. Assuming he is not in the control group, this tumor will have been used to customize his shot.
Young said the treatment was his “best chance at stopping the cancer in its tracks.”
“I feel lucky to be part of this clinical trial,” he said in a statement. “Of course, I did not feel so lucky when I was diagnosed with skin cancer. In fact it came as quite a shock. But now that I’ve had treatment, I’m keen to ensure it does not recur.”
Medical oncologist Heather Shaw, coordinating investigator of the trial, said it was "one of the most exciting things we've seen in a really long time."
“This is a really finely honed tool," she said, per Sky News.
Describing the treatments as “hugely technical and finely generated” for each patient, she said “it's far cleverer in some senses than a vaccine.”
“It is absolutely custom built for the patient — you couldn't give this to the next patient in the line because you wouldn't expect it to work.”
She added there was “real hope” the shots would be “gamechangers” for immunotherapy.
