Cancer vaccine could be ready in months
• Vaccines to treat cancer possible by 2030, say Biontech, Merck, Moderna • Thousands of pancreatic cancer patients die early ‘ because their disease is missed on scans’ • Hair- straightening chemical products linked to increased uterine cancer risk in ne
PHarmagiants Merck and Moderna have teamed up to develop a cancer vaccine that is based on the same tech used in COVID- 19 shots.
The new shot — designed for people with high- risk melanoma — is in the second of three trials and a verdict on whether it works or not is expected within months.
It harnesses MRNA technology that uses pieces of genetic code from patients’ tumors to teach the body to fight off the cancer.
The vaccine is given to people post- surgery to prevent the tumor from returning, and it is tailored to each patient, meaning no two shots will be the same.
This means it could be hugely expensive. Similar cancer vaccines being trialed cost around $ 100,000 (£ 91,000) to make each individual shot.
Merck and Moderna will share the production and commercial costs and split the profits if it goes to market. The collaboration has got markets excited, sending Moderna’s shares soaring 16 per cent Wednesday.
MRNA is leading the frontier of potential cancer cures after the tech was rapidly accelerated during the pandemic, leading to the two most successful COVID- 19 vaccines — made by Pfizer and Moderna.
As part of the updated deal, Merck will pay $ 250million to Moderna for joint rights to the cancer vaccine.
The two drug makers have been running trials of the shot together after forming a ‘ strategic partnership’ in 2016.
In the latest phase 2 study,
157 patients given personalized vaccines alongside Merck’s immunotherapy drug Keytruda.
Also, according to the husband and wife team behind one of the most successful COVID- 19 vaccines of the pandemic, vaccines that target cancer could be available before the end of the decade.
Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, who co- founded BionTech, the German firm that partnered with Pfizer to manufacture a revolutionary MRNA COVID- 19 vaccine, said they had made breakthroughs that fuelled their optimism for cancer vaccines in the coming years.
Speaking on the BBC’S Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Prof. Türeci described how the MRNA technology at the heart of Biontech’s COVID- 19 vaccine could be repurposed so that it primed the immune system to attack cancer cells instead of invading coronaviruses.
Asked when cancer vaccines based on MRNA might be ready to use in patients, Prof Sahin said they could be available “before 2030”.
An MRNA COVID vaccine
works by ferrying the genetic instructions for harmless spike proteins on the COVID virus into the body. The instructions are taken up by cells, which churn out the spike protein. These proteins, or antigens, are then used as “wanted posters” – telling the immune system’s antibodies and other defences what to search for and attack.
The same approach can be taken to prime the immune system to seek out and destroy cancer cells, said Türeci, BionTech’s chief medical officer. Rather than carrying code that identifies viruses, the vaccine contains genetic instructions for cancer antigens – proteins that stud the surfaces of tumour cells.
Biontech was working on MRNA cancer vaccines before the pandemic struck but the firm pivoted to produce COVID- 19 vaccines in the face of the global emergency. The firm now has several cancer vaccines in clinical trials. Türeci said the development and success of the Pfizer/ BionTech vaccine, which is similar to the Moderna COVID shot, “gives back to our cancer work”.
The German firm hopes to develop treatments for bowel cancer, melanoma and other cancer types, but substantial hurdles lie ahead. The cancer cells that make up tumours can be studded with a wide variety of different proteins, making it extremely difficult to make a vaccine that targets all of the cancer cells and no healthy tissues.
Türeci told Kuenssberg that Biontech had learned how to manufacture MRNA vaccines faster during the pandemic, and had a better understanding of how people’s immune systems responded to MRNA. The intense development and
rapid rollout of the COVID- 19 shot had also helped medicines regulators work out how to approve the vaccines. “This will definitely accelerate also our cancer vaccine,” she added.
But Türeci remained cautious about the work. “As scientists we are always hesitant to say we will have a cure for cancer,” she said. “We have a number of breakthroughs and we will continue to work on them.”
In August, Moderna said it was suing Biontech and its partner, the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, for patent infringement over the company’s Covid- 19 vaccine.
Asked about that, Sahin said: “Our innovations are original. We have spent 20 years of research in developing this type of treatment and of course we will fight for our intellectual property.”
Also, a damning study has warned that thousands of patients are dying early because pancreatic cancer is being missed on scans.
More than a third of pancreatic cancer cases ( 36 per cent) were potentially avoidable if they had been picked up sooner, researchers found.
But the UK study found many patients were being denied potentially curative surgery because signs were not being picked up after scans.
Researchers examined 600 scans of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at two NHS trusts in England between 2019 and 2021.
They found almost one in 12 were categorised as post- imaging pancreatic cancer ( PIPC) cases - when a patient undergoes an MRI or CT scan that fails to pick up cancer before later being diagnosed.
In almost half ( 48 per cent) of PIPC patients examined, there were signs of cancer that had been missed when scans were
reviewed by a specialist hepatobiliary radiologist.
More than a quarter ( 28 per cent) signs associated with pancreatic cancer, such as dilated bile or pancreatic ducts, were not recognised and investigated further.
Dr. Nosheen Umar, lead author of the study, from the University of Birmingham, said the oversights were costing lives.
“There is often only a very short period for curative surgery in pancreatic cancer, meaning it is vital that patients are diagnosed with the disease as early as possible to give them the best chance of survival,” he said.
“The study found that evidence of pancreatic cancer was initially missed in over a third of patients with post- imaging pancreatic cancers, which is a huge window of lost opportunity.
“We hope this study will raise awareness of the issue of postimaging pancreatic cancer and common reasons why pancreatic cancer can be initially missed.
“This will help to standardise future studies of this issue and guide quality improvements efforts, so we can increase the likelihood of an early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, increase the chances of patient survival and, ultimately, save lives.”
Pancreatic cancer kills around 9,600 people in the United Kingdom ( U. K.) every year, with around 10,500 newly diagnosed.
The disease kills roughly 50,000 in the United States
( U. S.) yearly, with around 62,000 people getting diagnosed.
As one of the hardest cancers to spot and treat, only a quarter survive beyond a year after diagnosis.