SAN DIEGO: A pancreatic cancer vaccine administered to patients three years ago continues to protect patients from cancer recurrence, a new study suggests.
At a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in San Diego, researchers reported that eight patients who received the vaccine had no recurrence of the cancer three years later.
According to the American Association of Clinical Oncology, pancreatic cancer is the most deadly disease. Despite successful surgery, only 12 percent of patients survive five years after diagnosis.
Chemotherapy, radiation, targeted therapy and current immunotherapy are largely ineffective in pancreatic cancer, researcher Dr. Vinod Balachandran said in a news release. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new treatments for patients suffering from this deadly disease.
Dr. Vinod said that this mRNA-based vaccine teaches the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells. To do this, the vaccine uses 20 unique proteins that are present in the patient’s tumor.
He said that there is a specific vaccine for each patient based on the specific variables found in their cancer.
