Research Progress丨Positive results of melanin vaccine revealed, is the vaccine for preventing cancer recurrence a therapeutic or preventive vaccine?

April 15th is National Anti-Cancer Day, but there is not much to write about how HPV vaccines and hepatitis B vaccines reduce the risk of related cancers, so I didn’t write about it because I didn’t want to plagiarize. However, today there is some very noteworthy "cancer vaccine" information worth sharing, specifically targeting melanoma .

Image source: phil.cdc.gov

Melanoma is a highly malignant tumor, with more than 100,000 cases each year in the United States and slightly lower in China, with a standardized incidence of "0.9/100,000 people". However, it is more invasive and has a "higher mortality rate" than in Europe and the United States. The 5-year survival rate of metastatic patients is even less than 20%, and patients in stage 2 and above have a very high risk of recurrence even with surgical treatment.

On Sunday local time, the American Association for Cancer Research announced the results of a Phase II clinical study, showing new hope for new immunotherapies to control melanoma recurrence.

This therapy is based on an immunotherapy (using pembrolizumab, a monoclonal antibody) that " blocks the PD-1 pathway " (cancer cells can use it to avoid T cell attacks, but blocking it can prevent cancer cells from hiding), and newly adds " mRNA vaccine " vaccination for melanoma.

This vaccine extracts blood samples from patients and then performs genetic sequencing to find proteins (34 types) that are not found in healthy tissues and designs them as mRNA vaccines to be expressed in the body, allowing the immune system to recognize these antigens (proteins) and attack them . The design and production of this personalized tumor vaccine takes about "8 weeks."

Blood sampling, image source: pexels

The results showed that among the 107 volunteers who received both the experimental mRNA vaccine and immunotherapy (pembrolizumab) alone, 24 (22%) had their cancer relapse within two years; among the 50 people who received immunotherapy alone, only 20 (40%) had their cancer relapse.

In other words, the risk of recurrence was reduced by "up to 44%" ! (Not high enough? Come on, this is to prevent the recurrence of malignant tumors, not to prevent chickenpox or measles)

In addition, vaccination with this mRNA vaccine did not significantly increase the side effects of the immunotherapy mentioned above, including affecting the endocrine system, causing diabetes and potentially permanent thyroid problems, fatigue, muscle pain, rash, diarrhea, fever, cough, decreased appetite, itching, shortness of breath, constipation and nausea.

And these "side effects" are often more obvious as the patient survives longer (the longer you live and the longer you take the medicine, the more likely it is that side effects will occur, just like you will always experience pain at the injection site after getting a vaccine several times). But this also shows that the treatment plan is effective, but most patients can live like ordinary people.

In 2023, this vaccine will also officially start Phase III clinical research and expand the research scope to the field of "other tumors".

However, it is still unknown how the future pricing of this tumor vaccine will be for this type of cancer, which affects 100,000 people in the United States each year. It should be noted that the immunotherapy just mentioned will cost $185,000 per year.

Image source: pexels

This also means that mRNA vaccines are no longer just suitable for preventing COVID-19 infection, and there may be greater room for prevention or treatment worth exploring in the future .

It should be noted that this therapy, like the vaccine used in Cleveland, USA, to prevent the recurrence of "triple-negative breast cancer", is currently in the clinical research stage. Even if positive results are seen, it does not necessarily mean that it has been successful, and volunteers have not yet been recruited in China.

Finally, I would like to ask, some people say that therapeutic vaccines are not considered "vaccines" but "drugs". What do you think about this?

May the world be free of epidemics

=Pill=

Disclaimer: This article was created out of personal interest, only to help more ordinary people have a clearer understanding of vaccines. The content and views do not represent any organization, unit, or institution, and it has not accepted any form of sponsorship. All pictures are from public online platforms. If the content is incorrect, please do more self-criticism (not).