Revolution in Cancer Treatment: Promising "mRNA" Vaccines for Lung, Pancreatic, and Skin Cancers

Washington - Afaq News - The Washington Post revealed that the success achieved by an experimental vaccine based on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology in developing personalized vaccines for treating skin cancer may pave the way for a new generation of treatments designed to combat different types of cancer.

This summer, Moderna and Merck announced that their cancer vaccine, Intasmarin Autogen, succeeded in the third phase of clinical trials, demonstrating the ability to reduce the risk of recurrence of melanoma skin cancer. Experts considered these results a significant development in the field of cancer treatments based on mRNA technology.

Research is currently expanding to test this technology in treating other cancers, including lung and pancreatic cancers, through an approach that relies on designing a vaccine specific to each patient.

The process begins with analyzing a sample of the tumor to identify its specific genetic mutations, then developing a vaccine that targets those mutations and stimulates the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells. Thus, each patient may receive a treatment in the future tailored to the genetic characteristics of the tumor they are suffering from, in a shift that could change the way cancer is addressed.

Dan Costin, director of the Cancer Center at White Plains Hospital in New York and the principal investigator in the lung cancer vaccine trial, clarified that reality is changing before our eyes.

He said it is not at all unreasonable to assume that in the future, when a person is diagnosed with cancer, part of their sample will be sent to a pathologist to confirm the diagnosis, and the other part will be sent to a laboratory where a special vaccine will be prepared for them.

Most of the cancer vaccines currently under development focus on the therapeutic aspect, meaning they treat the disease that is already present in the patient, rather than preventing it in advance.

Vinod Balachandran, director of the Olin Center for Cancer Vaccines at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, pointed out that while the immune system immediately recognizes pathogens as foreign bodies, cancer tumors arise from our own tissues, making them difficult to detect.

The messenger RNA (mRNA) in the vaccines teaches the body to produce antigens that direct the immune system to recognize and attack cancer. Another important advantage is the speed of producing mRNA vaccines compared to traditional vaccines, allowing for the provision of a personalized vaccine to the patient within a few weeks.

In lung cancer, which is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, a phase three clinical trial is currently underway to test the effectiveness of the drug Entisarmine in treating the disease in its early stages.

Kostin points out that although most patients undergo surgery to remove the tumor, there are patients with high-risk factors that may lead to a 30% chance of disease recurrence and death.

At the same time, researchers have recently begun a clinical trial for another mRNA vaccine called Autogene Cibomeran to treat pancreatic cancer, which is considered one of the deadliest types of cancer, with a five-year survival rate of only 13%.

In the first phase of the trial, the drug elicited an immune response in eight out of sixteen participants. Seven of them remained alive for a period ranging from four to six years after surgery.

Balachandran added, "If we succeed in applying immunotherapy to pancreatic cancer, we may be able to expand this knowledge to include other types of cancer. We will be able to overcome the toughest ones, and perhaps we can overcome the rest."

Alongside the optimism, researchers warn that it may take years before the vaccines still in early trial stages mature into a collective treatment, and their safety and efficacy on a large scale still need to be proven.

Jeff Koller, a professor of RNA biology and therapies at Johns Hopkins University, joined the warnings of experts in various research fields that the Trump administration's disregard for mRNA vaccines and the cancellation of their development contracts could threaten their future development.

Jay Baitchiria, director of the National Institutes of Health in the United States, acknowledged that the public has lost trust in COVID-19 vaccines, but he emphasized that the institution continues to invest in mRNA technology for cancer vaccines, which he described as very promising.