Could personalised cancer vaccines have saved many beloved lives!
CHENNAI: Over the years, the world has mourned the loss of countless beloved figures to cancer—Chadwick Boseman, Steve Jobs, David Bowie, Aretha Franklin, and many others. While speculative, the advancement of personalised immunotherapy raises a compelling question -- Could personalised cancer vaccines have saved their lives—if developed and deployed sooner?
While it's impossible to rewrite history, the growing success of early trials suggests that if such vaccines had been available, some cancers might have been detected earlier, treated more effectively, or even kept in remission.
Cancer is a highly personal disease. Its causes and manifestations vary greatly from person to person, even within the same type of cancer. As such, a generic approach or one-size-fits-all treatment is not an effective remedy. Personalised care is essential. If some of the promising research is to be believed, personalised cancer vaccines represent a new frontier in the fight against cancer.
The Legacy and Power of Vaccination
Since Edward Jenner's groundbreaking smallpox inoculation in 1796, vaccines have profoundly shaped the course of human health. From eradicating smallpox to reducing deaths from measles, polio, and hepatitis, vaccines are widely recognized as one of the greatest public health achievements. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared vaccination the most successful public health intervention of the 20th century.
However, while vaccines have traditionally been used to prevent infectious diseases, medicine is now entering a new era with the rise of personalised cancer vaccines. This novel approach uses a patient’s own tumor genetics to stimulate an immune response, opening the door to tailor-made immunotherapies that target cancer with precision.
What Are Personalised Cancer Vaccines?
Unlike traditional vaccines that aim to prevent infectious diseases, personalised cancer vaccines are therapeutic—designed to treat existing cancers by training the immune system to recognise and destroy cancer cells. These vaccines are developed using specific genetic mutations (neoantigens) found only in an individual's tumor.
How They Work:
Tumor Sequencing: A patient’s tumor is genetically sequenced to identify unique mutations.
Neoantigen Identification: Scientists identify neoantigens—abnormal proteins made by cancer cells.
Vaccine Creation: A custom vaccine is formulated to target these neoantigens.
Immune Activation: The vaccine stimulates the immune system to seek out and destroy cells presenting the neoantigens, ideally without harming normal tissue.
This approach is personalised, targeted, and holds the promise of higher efficacy with fewer side effects than conventional chemotherapy or radiation.
New Breakthrough
Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have reached a new milestone. They’ve shown that their personalised vaccine, used with an immune checkpoint inhibitor, is safe and can trigger strong immune responses in people with bladder cancer.
The Phase 1 study, led by Dr. Nina Bhardwaj and Dr. Matthew Galsky, was published in the journal -- Nature Cancer, this week. It adds to the growing evidence that personalised vaccines may improve the safety and effectiveness of current cancer treatments.
“Our findings move the field forward by showing how personalized vaccines like PGV001 can work in bladder cancer,” says Dr. Bhardwaj, Ward-Coleman Chair in Cancer Research and Director of Mount Sinai’s Vaccine and Cell Therapy Lab.
“We’ve proven these custom vaccines can consistently activate the immune system in powerful, cancer-fighting ways," he added.
Mount Sinai’s experimental vaccine, called PGV001, is designed to target the unique mutations in each patient’s tumor. Using advanced tumor sequencing and a computer-based system created by Mount Sinai experts, the team identifies which tumor changes—called neoantigens—are most likely to alert the immune system. They then create a custom vaccine made from lab-designed peptides based on those markers.
When combined with treatments like the immunotherapy drug atezolizumab, PGV001 helps train the immune system to attack cancer cells while sparing healthy ones.
Too many precious lives are lost far too soon. But with new hope on the horizon, perhaps we can save some.