A pancreatic cancer vaccine produced immune responses that remained detectable for up to two years post-vaccination, according to a study published July 16 in Cancer Discovery.
Researchers from Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, both based in Baltimore, led a phase 1 clinical trial to assess the safety and efficacy of the vaccine among 20 individuals with a high risk of developing pancreatic cancer.
Here are five notes from the trial:
- The vaccine — called mKRAS-VAX — targets six of the most common KRAS mutations that drive pancreatic cancer and most pancreatic precancer lesions.
- The 20 trial participants all had a high risk of developing pancreatic cancer due to family history, genetics or evidence of a pancreatic cyst.
- Immune responses, specifically mutant-KRAS-specific effector and central memory T-cell responses, were seen in 90% of participants.
After a median follow-up of 16.5 months, none of the vaccinated participants had developed pancreatic cancer. - Among the vaccinated individuals, 37.5% experienced a reduction or resolution of a pancreatic cyst compared with 6.8% of an unvaccinated cohort with similar characteristics.
- “This long-lasting response is particularly noteworthy when assessing for possible interception of cancer, which requires long-lasting immunity,” Neeha Zaidi, MD, associate professor of oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, said in a July 16 news release from the American Association for Cancer Research. “In addition, the vaccine was safe and well tolerated, supporting its use in larger cancer interception studies.”
Read the full study here.
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