Customizable Cancer Vaccine

Personalized cancer vaccine completely cured the first patients

Svetlana Maslova, Hi-tech+

American researchers presented the results of the first phase of clinical trials, where the new PGV-001 vaccine was tested in patients with various types of tumors. Approximately one in three people has completely recovered without serious side effects.

The neoantigenic peptide vaccine PGV-001 was used after standard adjuvant therapy – at a time when minimal signs of cancer remain in the body of patients after treatment. The first phase of the study involved 13 people, of whom 10 volunteers had solid tumors (lung cancer, breast cancer and urothelial cancer), and three had multiple myeloma. The findings of the study are reported on the website of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Before taking the vaccine, all patients underwent surgery (solid tumors) or autologous stem cell transplantation (multiple myeloma). The probability of relapse, according to scientists, was less than 30%.

All study participants received at least 7 doses of the vaccine, and 11 volunteers underwent the entire course of treatment (10 doses). To create a personalized vaccine, scientists sequenced the DNA of the tumor and the germ line and the RNA of each patient's tumor. They also identified the type of patient's HLA (human leukocyte antigen) to assess the potential for immune recognition.

The follow-up period for patients averaged 925 days.

As a result of the treatment, four patients were completely cured without showing signs of cancer, and four more continue treatment.

Also, four patients died during the study, and the observation of the last volunteer was difficult, so his data were not taken into account in the conclusions.

The average cancer progression-free survival was approximately 618 days.

Scientists have recorded a good tolerance of the vaccine – only a third of the participants developed minor reactions at the injection site.

"The results demonstrate that our approach is viable for creating a safe personalized cancer vaccine that can potentially be used to treat tumors of various types," concluded the author of the work, Thomas Marron from the Tisch Cancer Institute.

Now the researchers intend to evaluate the effectiveness of the vaccine on a larger sample of participants with different types of tumors and previously conducted courses of therapy.

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