A therapeutic vaccine is designed to treat a person who already has a specific disease whereas the vaccines most people think of in this age of COVID-19 are prophylactic or preventive vaccines.
In a study led by Dr. Julie Bauman, deputy director of the University of Arizona Cancer Center, the vaccine used is a individualized vaccine, meaning the vaccine used is custom made based on the mutations in the person’s tumor.
In this approach, the researchers take DNA from the cancer tumor and compare it to the patient’s own DNA. The mutations seen in the tumor are then used to "educate" the patient’s cancer-fighting T cells to attach cells with those mutations.
In the early results of the vaccine trial announced in a Nov. 10, 2020 press release showed that of the 10 cancer patients given the personalized vaccine in addition to the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab (KEYTRUDA), 5 responded with reduced tumor and 2 had a complete response, meaning no detectable cancer.
The 50 percent response rate is considered exceptional, by comparison, the response rate for pembrolizumab alone at this stage of testing was 15 percent.
Dr. Bauman says the current study will now expand to 40 patients with head and neck cancer.
“The data are preliminary and the sample size is small, but it is promising,” Dr. Bauman said. “A phase I trial is about safety first and foremost, and we now know this treatment is safe and tolerable. But, we also have a strong signal to point us to further study this in head and neck cancer. That is why we are excited to expand this trial.”
“The data are preliminary and the sample size is small, but it is promising,” Dr. Bauman said. “A phase I trial is about safety first and foremost, and we now know this treatment is safe and tolerable. But, we also have a strong signal to point us to further study this in head and neck cancer. That is why we are excited to expand this trial.”
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