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| Patrick Ott, MD, PhD and Cathy Wu, MD photo credit– Dana Farber |
The small study involved eight patients who had undergone surgery for advanced melanoma but were considered at high risk of recurrence. Each received injections of NeoVax, a median of 18 weeks after surgery.
The vaccine is engineered from abnormal proteins, called neoantigens, taken from the patients’ tumor cells. The proteins injected into the patients then trigger an immune response against any cells displaying those proteins, including any melanoma cells that re-emerge. The findings of this followup analysis were published online in the journal Nature Medicine.
Led by Catherine Wu, MD of Dana-Farber, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston the research shows the feasibility of this personalized type of cancer vaccine as a treatment option.
“These findings demonstrate that a personal neoantigen vaccine can stimulate a durable immune response in patients with melanoma,” Wu said in a press release. “We found evidence that the initial, targeted immune response has broadened over the years to provide patients with continued protection from the disease.”
An average of four years after receiving the vaccine all eight patients remained alive with six showing no signs of active melanoma. It two patients, whose cancer had spread to their lungs, the researchers administered an additional drug that loosens restraints on the immune response. In those two patient the researchers found that their anti-cancer T cells made their way to the lung tumor tissues, where they could kill melanoma cells.
The vaccine approach opens up the possibility of treating patients after other cancer therapy as a means of controlling tumors that may come back in other parts of the body.
Led by Catherine Wu, MD of Dana-Farber, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston the research shows the feasibility of this personalized type of cancer vaccine as a treatment option.
“These findings demonstrate that a personal neoantigen vaccine can stimulate a durable immune response in patients with melanoma,” Wu said in a press release. “We found evidence that the initial, targeted immune response has broadened over the years to provide patients with continued protection from the disease.”
An average of four years after receiving the vaccine all eight patients remained alive with six showing no signs of active melanoma. It two patients, whose cancer had spread to their lungs, the researchers administered an additional drug that loosens restraints on the immune response. In those two patient the researchers found that their anti-cancer T cells made their way to the lung tumor tissues, where they could kill melanoma cells.
The vaccine approach opens up the possibility of treating patients after other cancer therapy as a means of controlling tumors that may come back in other parts of the body.
Clinical trials of the neoantigen treatments are currently recruiting patients with melanoma, kidney cancer, ovarian cancer, and glioblastoma. Another trial testing the approach in lymphocytic leukemia will be recruiting patients soon. More information can be found at ClinicalTrials.gov
Source: Dana Farber Cancer Institute press release
Source: Dana Farber Cancer Institute press release
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