The first lung cancer vaccine enters human trials. Seven countries are targeted

Doctors have begun testing the world’s first lung cancer vaccine that works with messenger RNA (mRNA) technology on patients, as experts describe its “revolutionary” potential for thousands of save lives, The Guardian reports.

Lung cancer is the most common cancer that causes death worldwide, responsible for approximately 1.8 million deaths each year. Survival rates for those with advanced forms of the disease, when the tumor has spread, are particularly low.

Experts are currently testing a new injection that trains the body to hunt down and kill cancer cells – preventing them from coming back. Known as BNT116 and manufactured by BioNTech, the vaccine is designed to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common form of the disease.

A Phase 1 clinical trial, the first human trial of BNT116, was launched in 34 research centers in seven countries: UK, USA, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain and Turkey. In total, 130 patients – from early stages, before surgery or radiotherapy, to advanced stages of the disease or who have recurrent cancer – are registered to receive the vaccine together with immunotherapy.

Britain has six centres, located in England and Wales, and the first British patient received the first dose of the vaccine on Tuesday.

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the injection uses messenger RNA (mRNA), similar to vaccines against Covid-19, and works by presenting tumor signals from NSCLC to the immune system, to encourage the body to fight against cancer cells that have these symptoms. The goal is to strengthen a person’s immune response to cancer while leaving healthy cells untouched, unlike chemotherapy.

“We are now entering this exciting new era of mRNA-based immunotherapy clinical trials to investigate the treatment of lung cancer. “said Professor Siow Ming Lee, a consultant medical oncologist, who is leading the study in the UK. “It’s simple to administer and you can pick out specific antigens from the cancer cell and then target them. This technology is the next big step in cancer treatment.”the specialist shows.

Janusz Racz, 67, from London, was the first person to receive the vaccine in the UK. He was diagnosed in May and soon after began chemotherapy and radiation therapy. A researcher specializing in AI, he said his job motivated him to participate in the study. “I am also a scientist and I understand that the progress of science – especially in medicine – involves people agreeing to participate in such investigations.”he said. “It would be very beneficial for me because it is a new procedure that is not available to other patients and will help me to get rid of cancer.” And I can also be part of the team that can provide a proof of concept for this new procedure, and the sooner it is implemented worldwide, the better that people will be saved. “announced the

On Tuesday, Racz received six consecutive injections at five-minute intervals, for 30 minutes. RNA sequences were different in each injection. He will receive the vaccine every week for six consecutive weeks and then every three weeks for 54 weeks.

“We hope that this additional treatment will stop the cancer from coming back, because many times for lung cancer patients, even after surgery and radiation, it will come back. “said Dr. Lee. “I have worked in lung cancer research for 40 years. When I started, in the 1990s, no one believed that chemotherapy worked. We now know that about 20-30% (of patients) survive stage 4 with immunotherapy and now we want to improve survival rates. So hopefully this mRNA vaccine will give an extra boost. We hope to move to stage 2, stage 3 and then hopefully it will become the standard of care worldwide and save many lung cancer patients. “said the researcher.

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