Cancer vaccine
In St. Petersburg, scientists save even the dying
Scientists of the N. N. Petrov NMIC of Oncology have developed a unique technology for creating antitumor vaccines based on dendritic cells. These drugs can be effective even in terminal cases of cancer. The patent for the last of the components was obtained in 2021. Now the technology is being prepared for licensing, after which it will be used to save patients.
40% success rate
Scientists have been struggling to create drugs that can effectively destroy malignant tumor cells without damaging healthy organs for a long time. Vaccines developed at the NMIC of Oncology are just such a medicine. They are made on the basis of dendritic cells (leukocytes specialized in the presentation of antigens, necessary for the formation of the body's T-cell response to infections and tumors — ed.). To create a vaccine, scientists take the blood of exactly the patient for whom the medicine is intended, process it in a special way, teaching it on nine cancer cultures, and then inject it to the patient. If the body responds to the drug (this happens in 40% of cases), the immune system begins to recognize the tumor cells and destroy them. The results are amazing.
"Oncological patients need different methods of treatment," explains Irina Baldueva, one of the creators of the dendritic vaccine, head of the Scientific Department of Oncoimmunology at the N. N. Petrov NMIC. — This includes radiation, targeted, radio, and chemotherapy, surgical interventions and immunotherapy. Antitumor vaccine is one of the types of immunological treatment."
Work on its creation began back in 2010, but then it was impossible to obtain a license due to restrictions in legislation. Conditions changed only in 2016, and scientists began to refine their brainchild. The Russian Science Foundation supported the work of the staff of the NMIC Oncology and gave them a grant 22-25-00723 for the continuation of promising research.
By the grant number on the website The Russian Science Foundation can find out more about the research.
800 lives saved
So far, the vaccine has been used only for the treatment of patients in the terminal stages of the disease. It happens that the patient's body does not respond to any of the methods of treatment — cancer literally devours him. Or the diagnosis was made too late, and metastases affected many organs. It also happens that malignant cells mutate, and well-known drugs cease to affect them. In all these situations, the result is the same: conservative methods of treatment become powerless. Previously, it was impossible to save such patients. Antitumor vaccines have seriously changed the balance.
According to Irina Baldueva, among those who were given a vaccine based on dendritic cells, there is a person who died from melanoma and soft tissue sarcoma. The 55-year-old at that time from St. Petersburg was declared inoperable, it seemed impossible to save him. The vaccine helped. In total, he had to receive it 41 times, but in the end the disease receded. For 15 years now, the man has been living with persistent remission, for the last 4 years he has not even had signs of the disease.
Antitumor vaccine was also administered to other patients dying from cancer. There are more than 800 of them in total. Many of them have been living for more than five years after completing the course.
On average, treatment takes three years. First, the vaccine is administered 4 times every two weeks, then the patient receives eight doses of the drug — one monthly. In the second year of treatment, the vaccine is administered four times, and in the third — twice. After that, the course is considered completed.
Another effect of the vaccine based on dendritic cells is to increase immunity. The fact is that after conservative treatment — radio, radiation and chemotherapy - the immune system of an oncological patient suffers greatly. Aggressive drugs given to the patient destroy the tumor, but at the same time damage healthy cells. Weakened by intoxication, the body may even die, unable to cope with some other disease after treatment - for example, with the flu. Therefore, the support of the immune system of cancer patients is extremely important, and the antitumor vaccine just stimulates the body's natural defenses.
Protection against mutagenicity
There is one more invention among the scientific discoveries of scientists of the N. N. Petrov NMIC of Oncology: a drug based on lignin (a substance that characterizes the stiffened walls of plant cells, a complex polymer compound contained in the cells of vascular plants and some algae — ed.) Scientists believe that it can help with solving the problem of the long-term adverse effects of antitumor treatment — including the development of second primary tumors and pulmonary fibrosis in cured patients, as well as the impact on their children and grandchildren. These studies are also supported by grants from the Russian Science Foundation (20-15-00330 and 22-25-20177) and the St. Petersburg Science Foundation (No. 50/2022).
The development of second primary tumors (the occurrence of cancer in other organs) is a complication that people who have cured cancer face, especially if they were ill young.
"The consequences of chemo- and radiotherapy can be the accumulation of genetic damage," explains Elena Fedoros, head of the Scientific Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Aging at the N.N. Petrov Oncology Research Center. — This treatment is potentially mutagenic, it also damages healthy cells of the body. We are faced with the fact that once cured people after 15-20 years, so-called second primary tumors appear, affecting other organs already. They are most often observed in those who have experienced juvenile leukemia (a malignant blood disease)."
Experts have already proved in laboratory animals that lignin derivatives significantly reduce the toxicity of chemotherapy drugs and improve the tolerability of radiotherapy. In addition, this substance protects DNA molecules, reducing the level of their damage, which reduces the risks of second tumors in patients, and also protects their possible children. The patent for the invention was received in 2017, but research is still ongoing.
Scientists hope that the combination of conservative treatment with taking drugs based on lignin will reduce the damaging effects of aggressive drugs — and repeated oncological diseases in patients will occur less often. The research was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (No. 20-15-00330).
The possibility of preventing lung fibrosis, which scientists hope to achieve, is also associated with the ability of lignin derivatives to protect healthy body cells from the effects of aggressive treatment. One of the drugs often used in the treatment of cancer, effective in the fight against lymphomas, cancer of the testicles and ovaries and cervix, can lead to a side effect — pulmonary fibrosis. Having gone into remission for the underlying disease, the patient risks being left with unhealthy lungs — and they will have to be treated already.
All these studies, according to scientists, are very promising. If they are brought to a logical and successful conclusion, Russia can become a new world center for the treatment of malignant diseases, even the most advanced stages.
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