Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal malignancies, fatal in 88% of patients. It is also one of the hardest to treat. Tumors can be surgically removed, but they come back within seven to nine months in 90% of patients. Chemotherapy can help prolong life, but it too is rarely a cure. Radiation, immunotherapy and targeted therapies also don’t work.
Of the 16 patients who were able to complete all phases of the study, eight responded to the vaccine, which taught their immune systems how to recognize and fight off the cancer cells. None of those eight has seen their cancer return.
…
For this first study, doctors surgically removed the patients’ tumors and sent the tissue to a lab in Germany where scientists sequenced genetic code from the tumors and from the patients’ blood. They compared those sets of genes to find the ones that were altered in the cancer cells. After they identified the changed genes, they ran them through a computer program to let it pick the ones that would make the most effective targets.
Then they made their personalized mRNA vaccines. Patients got eight doses, which were infused into their bloodstream rather than injected into their muscles, as the Covid-19 vaccines are.
