A new experimental vaccine has been developed that appears to be successful in preventing recurrences of the deadly colorectal and pancreatic cancers.
A study led by the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, tested the ELI-002 2P vaccine on 25 patients previously treated for pancreatic and colorectal cancers.
The vaccine could “help prevent or delay cancer recurrence in high-risk patients whose tumors are driven by KRAS mutations, which are responsible for half of colorectal cancers and more than 90 percent of pancreatic cancers, researchers noted,” The Hill reported.
The patients were tested a year after the vaccine had been administered, and the average relapse-free survival times were significantly greater than historical norms.
Oncologist Dr. Thomas Marron told NewsNation the results are “extremely promising. Pancreatic cancer and colon cancer are really terrible cancers, and oftentimes even if patients can have curative-intense surgery, unfortunately this cancer tends to come back as microscopic bits of the cancer have already spread. This vaccine is really about teaching patients’ immune system how to recognize and attack those tiny amounts of cancers so that they keep them from coming back, increasing the likelihood that we can cure patients with surgery and chemotherapy or radiation.”
“Vaccines are all about teaching your immune system to recognize and attack something foreign,” he continued. “Oftentimes we catch colon cancer early because of colonoscopies and sometimes we’ll catch pancreatic cancer early enough so we can do a surgery and cut it out but small amounts remain. So the vaccine is really about teaching your immune system what in the cancer is foreign, because cancer is foreign to our body, and teaching your immune system how to hunt down and eliminate those tiny bits that remain, and that really increases the likelihood that patients go in remission, stay in remission.”
The vaccine induced “persistent T cell responses targeting oncogenic driver KRAS mutations, alongside personalized, tumor antigen-specific T cells,” the study found, adding, “Tumor-promoting driver mutations in KRAS occur in approximately 20–25% of human tumors, including colorectal cancer (CRC) (50%) and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) (93%). Despite curative intent, relapses are common following standard locoregional therapy, particularly for resectable PDAC.”
“The long-term follow-up of the AMPLIFY-201 phase 1 study provides evidence that ELI-002 2P induces potent, polyfunctional CD4+ and CD8+ T cell immunity to mKRAS alongside frequent antigen spreading that may delay tumor recurrence,” the study stated.
