New lung cancer vaccine tested on UK patient for the first time
A new vaccine that primes the immune system to recognise and fight lung cancer is being tested for the first time on patients in the UK.
Researchers leading the trial said the treatment could improve survival rates among people with the disease, with hopes that it could eventually become the standard of care worldwide.
How does the vaccine work?
Known as BNT116, the vaccine is designed to treat non-small cell lung cancer, the most common form of the disease.
It utilises messenger mRNA, similar to Covid-19 vaccines, and works by presenting the immune system with tumour markers to prime the body to fight cancer cells expressing these markers.
Scientists hope the jab will bolster a person’s immune response to cancer while leaving healthy cells untouched, unlike chemotherapy.
It will be given to lung cancer patients alongside standard immunotherapy.
What do scientists say?
Professor Siow Ming Lee, a consultant medical oncologist at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “It’s simple to deliver, and you can select specific antigens in the cancer cell, and then you target them.”
“Immunotherapy has made a big progress, especially in lung cancer,” Prof Lee added. “But it still doesn’t treat all lung cancer patients successfully.
“This technology is the next big phase of cancer treatment. We’ve been through chemotherapy. We’ve been through the standard immunotherapy treatment for some lung cancer patients.
“We’ve got personalised treatments using EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor). But now we just want to add on another additional immune approach attack, and we hope it’s a success.”
Who is taking part?
Janusz Racz, 67, has become the first person in the UK to receive a vaccine for lung cancer.
He was diagnosed with the disease in May.
Janusz, who is originally from Poland but has lived in London for 10 years, received six injections five minutes apart over a half-hour period at the National Institute for Health Research UCLH Clinical Research Facility on Tuesday.
Each jab contained different RNA strands. He will get the vaccine every week for six consecutive weeks, and then every three weeks for a total of 54 weeks.
Mr Racz, who has three children and six grandchildren, says he's proud to be involved in the trial: "I can be a part of the team that can provide proof of concept for this new methodology, and the faster it would be implemented across the world, more people will be saved.
“I am not really worried about being the first participant in this trial. I would feel the same if I was the 100th participant. For me, it is just about taking part.”
What is the scale of the trial?
The trial will take place across 34 research sites in seven countries - Janusz is one of six in England and Wales.
Overall, it is hoped about 130 lung cancer patients will be enrolled, 20 of whom will be based in the UK.
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What could happen next?
As a phase one study, this trial will determine the safety of the BNT116 vaccine.
When a phase one trial is successful, researchers usually move on to phase two, which will look at effectiveness and usually will include a larger number of patients.
A phase three trial is larger still and usually compares a new treatment to a standard treatment.
Prof Lee said he hopes this vaccine eventually “becomes standard of care worldwide and saves lots of lung cancer patients”.
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