Doctors have begun testing the world's first mRNA-based lung cancer vaccine on patients, as experts hailed the “revolutionary“ its potential to save thousands of lives, reported the “Guardian”, quoted by dariknews.bg.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the world, causing about 1.8 million deaths each year. The survival rate for people with advanced forms of the disease, where the tumors have spread, is particularly low.
Now experts are testing a new injection that directs the body to seek out and destroy cancer cells, then prevents them from returning. Known as BNT116 and produced by BioNTech, the vaccine is designed to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common form of the disease.
The Phase 1 clinical trial, the first study of BNT116 in humans, has begun at 34 research sites in 7 countries: UK, USA, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain and Turkey.
There are six UK sites located in England and Wales, with the first patient in the UK receiving their first dose this week.
In total, about 130 patients - from early stages before surgery or radiotherapy, to late stages of the disease or recurrent cancer - will be enrolled to receive the vaccine along with immunotherapy.
Around 20 of these will be from the UK.
The jab uses messenger RNA (mRNA), similar to the COVID-19 vaccines, and works by presenting tumor markers from NSCLC to the immune system to stimulate the body to fight cancer cells expressing those markers.
The goal is to boost a person's immune response against cancer, leaving healthy cells unaffected, unlike chemotherapy.
“We are now entering this very exciting new era of clinical trials of mRNA-based immunotherapy to investigate the treatment of lung cancer,” says Prof Siow Ming Lee, consultant in medical oncology at University College Hospitals London ( University College London hospitals NHS foundation trust, UCLH), which is leading the UK trial.
“It is easy to deliver and can pick out specific antigens in the cancer cell and then target them. This technology is the next big phase of cancer treatment”, he added.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the world, causing about 1.8 million deaths each year. The survival rate for people with advanced forms of the disease, where the tumors have spread, is particularly low.
Now experts are testing a new injection that directs the body to seek out and destroy cancer cells, then prevents them from returning. Known as BNT116 and produced by BioNTech, the vaccine is designed to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common form of the disease.
The Phase 1 clinical trial, the first study of BNT116 in humans, has begun at 34 research sites in 7 countries: UK, USA, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain and Turkey.
There are six UK sites located in England and Wales, with the first patient in the UK receiving their first dose this week.
In total, about 130 patients - from early stages before surgery or radiotherapy, to late stages of the disease or recurrent cancer - will be enrolled to receive the vaccine along with immunotherapy.
Around 20 of these will be from the UK.
The jab uses messenger RNA (mRNA), similar to the COVID-19 vaccines, and works by presenting tumor markers from NSCLC to the immune system to stimulate the body to fight cancer cells expressing those markers.
The goal is to boost a person's immune response against cancer, leaving healthy cells unaffected, unlike chemotherapy.
“We are now entering this very exciting new era of clinical trials of mRNA-based immunotherapy to investigate the treatment of lung cancer,” says Prof Siow Ming Lee, consultant in medical oncology at University College Hospitals London ( University College London hospitals NHS foundation trust, UCLH), which is leading the UK trial.
“It is easy to deliver and can pick out specific antigens in the cancer cell and then target them. This technology is the next big phase of cancer treatment”, he added.