Liver cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in the world, with approximately 800,000 people dying from liver cancer each year. Although medicine has improved, targeted drugs and immunotherapy have been used to treat patients with advanced liver cancer, but their effectiveness is still very limited. Recently, scientists from Geneos Therapeutics and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the United States have tried to combine personalized cancer vaccines with current immunotherapy drugs to treat patients with advanced liver cancer. The results show that the effectiveness of immunotherapy can be doubled with the help of cancer vaccines, which were recently published in the medical journal Nature Medicine.
Checkpoint prevention therapy was once thought to be a new hope to end the dilemma of cancer treatment, but it is still not enough when it comes to liver cancer usually it can only save the life of the extend patients for a time, but it cannot effectively reverse the condition, and not all patients can. Despite the anti-cancer potential of cancer vaccines, research is trying to create better liver cancer treatments by combining checkpoint inhibitor drugs and cancer vaccines.
The first and second clinical trials are planned for the personalized DNA vaccine GNOS-PV02 developed by Geneos Therapeutics. Lead author Dr. Mark Yarchoan, associate professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, explained: “GNOS-PV02 functions to educate the patient’s immune system to recognize cancer antigens on cancer cells to help protect the system. recognizes and attacks cancer cells. more effective.”
The team tailors the vaccine for each patient Because their cancer cells have different genetic mutations, they have specific cancer antigens. Only by creating a vaccine tailored to patients can the immune system be properly educated to recognize their cancer antigens. Before making a personalized vaccine, it is necessary to obtain a sample of the patient’s cancer tissue and analyze the DNA to identify specific genetic mutations. According to the results of the study, a vaccine can be made that is most beneficial to the patient.
Personalized vaccines will be an important form of cancer treatment for the next generation
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the immunosuppressant drug Keytruda to treat liver cancer as early as November 2018, but only a few patients had significant responses, and the results were inconclusive as encouraging as those for other cancers. On the other hand, most cancer vaccine clinical trials have failed because these vaccine designs ignore the importance of tailoring Personalized cancer vaccine technology has recently advanced.
A total of 36 subjects with advanced liver cancer were included in the trial In addition to immunosuppressive drugs, a personalized vaccine was given every three weeks in the first phase, starting with the fifth dose, the administration was changed to every nine weeks, and then every 12 weeks after two years, a vaccine is given once and continues until the fifth year if the patient’s condition allows. Most patients receive up to five doses of the vaccine. Compared to cancer vaccines from other teams, this vaccine contains more antigens, with up to 40 cancer antigens per dose. The results of the study showed that about 30% of the patients were relieved after treatment, and the effect was twice as good as treatment with Keytruda alone. It is even more interesting that three patients’ tumors have completely disappeared.
Cancer cells usually have accumulated thousands of DNA mutation points to be more effective in activating the patient’s immunity. Most oncologists believe that personalized cancer vaccines will become an important way to treat cancer in the next generation.
(Original image source: shutterstock)
2024-04-21 01:45:00
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