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WORLD’S FIRST LUNG CANCER VACCINE TRIALS LAUNCHED ACROSS SEVEN
COUNTRIES  
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Andrew Gregory
August 23, 2024
Guardian
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_ In a first-of-its-kind clinical trial, an mRNA-based vaccine trains
the patient's immune system to hunt down and kill the cancerous cells
that produce the world's leading cause of cancer death, and then
prevents the cancer's return. _

"Solo-mrna-vaccine-17", by Spencerbdavis (CC BY 4.0)

 

Doctors have begun trialling the world’s first mRNA lung cancer
vaccine in patients, as experts hailed its “groundbreaking”
potential to save thousands of lives.

Lung cancer is the world’s leading cause of cancer death, accounting
for about 1.8m deaths every year. Survival rates in those with
advanced forms of the disease, where tumours have spread, are
particularly poor.

Now experts are testing a new jab that instructs the body to hunt down
and kill cancer cells – then prevents them ever coming back. Known
as BNT116 and made by BioNTech, the vaccine is designed to treat
non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common form of the
disease.

The phase 1 clinical trial, the first human study of BNT116, has
launched across 34 research sites in seven countries: the UK, US,
Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain and Turkey.

The UK has six sites, located in England and Wales, with the first UK
patient to receive the vaccine having their initial dose on Tuesday.

Overall, about 130 patients – from early-stage before surgery or
radiotherapy, to late-stage disease or recurrent cancer – will be
enrolled to have the jab alongside immunotherapy. About 20 will be
from the UK.

The jab uses messenger RNA (mRNA), similar to Covid-19 vaccines, and
works by presenting the immune system with tumour markers from NSCLC
to prime the body to fight cancer cells expressing these markers.

The aim is to strengthen a person’s immune response to cancer while
leaving healthy cells untouched, unlike chemotherapy.

“We are now entering this very exciting new era of mRNA-based
immunotherapy clinical trials to investigate the treatment of lung
cancer,” said Prof Siow Ming Lee, a consultant medical oncologist at
University College London hospitals NHS
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which is leading the trial in the UK.

“It’s simple to deliver, and you can select specific antigens in
the cancer cell, and then you target them. This technology is the next
big phase of cancer treatment.”

Janusz Racz, 67, from London, was the first person to have the vaccine
in the UK. He was diagnosed in May and soon after started chemotherapy
and radiotherapy.

The scientist, who specialises in AI, said his profession inspired him
to take part in the trial. “I am a scientist too, and I understand
that the progress of science – especially in medicine – lies in
people agreeing to be involved in such investigations,” he said.

He added: “It would be very beneficial for me, because it’s a new
methodology not available for other patients that can help me to get
rid of the cancer.

“And also, I can be a part of the team that can provide proof of
concept for this new methodology, and the faster it would be
implemented across the world, more people will be saved.”

Racz received six consecutive injections five minutes apart over 30
minutes at the National Institute for Health
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Research Facility on Tuesday.

Each jab contained different RNA strands. He will get the vaccine
every week for six consecutive weeks, and then every three weeks for
54 weeks.

Lee said: “We hope adding this additional treatment will stop the
cancer coming back because a lot of time for lung cancer patients,
even after surgery and radiation, it does come back.”

He added: “I’ve been in lung cancer research for 40 years now.
When I started in the 1990s, nobody believed chemotherapy worked.

“We now know about 20-30% [of patients] stay alive with stage 4 with
immunotherapy and now we want to improve survival rates. So hopefully
this mRNA vaccine, on top of immunotherapy, might provide the extra
boost.

“We hope to go on to phase 2, phase 3, and then hope it becomes
standard of care worldwide and saves lots of lung cancer patients.”

The Guardian revealed in May
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thousands of patients in England were to be fast-tracked into
groundbreaking trials of cancer vaccines in a revolutionary
world-first NHS “matchmaking” scheme to save lives.

Under the scheme, patients who meet the eligibility criteria will gain
access to clinical trials for the vaccines that experts say represent
a new dawn in cancer treatment.

Lord Vallance, the science minister, hailed the launch of the lung
cancer vaccine trial. “This approach has the potential to save the
lives of thousands diagnosed with lung cancer every year,” he said.
“We back our researchers so that they continue to be an integral
part of projects that produce groundbreaking therapies, like this
one.”

Racz hopes once his treatment is over he can get back to running and
achieve his lifetime ambition: completing the London Marathon.

_Andrew Gregory is the Guardian's health editor.
Twitter @andrewgregory [[link removed]].
Click here
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his public key_

_The Guardian is globally renowned for its coverage of politics, the
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