mRNA cancer vaccines show early wins in pancreatic and skin cancer (opens the source in a new tab)
- NPR profiles Donna Gustafson, 72, the first person to get a personalised mRNA vaccine for pancreatic cancer, about seven years ago, alongside surgery and chemotherapy. She shows no current evidence of the disease.
- In the 16-patient Memorial Sloan Kettering trial she joined, the vaccine triggered a response in half, and seven of those eight are alive. Separately, Merck and Moderna reported last month that their vaccine cut skin cancer recurrence and death by 42% over two years.
- Trials are running in lung, kidney, bladder and brain cancers, though some have failed for reasons researchers don't yet understand.
- 42%
- fewer skin cancer recurrences and deaths
- 7 of 8
- responders still alive, pancreatic trial
Why it matters Pancreatic cancer has few effective treatments, so even small signals matter. Vaccines built from a patient's own tumour could make cancer care closer to custom medicine, if they scale.
Other side Sixteen patients with no described control group is a signal, not proof. Some mRNA cancer trials have failed, and a vaccine made for each patient raises hard questions about cost and speed.
Source:NPR (free to read) ↗