A new trial will be conducted to determine the safety of a new lung cancer vaccine at different sites in England and Wales, the German news agency reported.
The first patient in the UK received the vaccine at the National Institutes of Health’s UCLH Clinical Research Centre in August.
What is a vaccine and how does it work?
The vaccine, known as BNT116, uses messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, the same technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The vaccine works by presenting the immune system with tumor markers from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This prepares the body to fight cancer cells that express these markers while leaving healthy cells untouched.
What makes this vaccine different from traditional treatments?
Traditional treatments usually rely on surgery, chemotherapy or radiation, which can cause serious side effects and affect the overall health of the body. The new immunotherapy focuses on enhancing the immune system’s ability to fight cancer, which reduces side effects and improves the patient’s quality of life. The new vaccine represents a new generation of immunotherapy, as it provides more precise and effective targeting of cancer cells, which increases the chances of recovery.
The new vaccine focuses on specific markers on the surface of lung cancer cells, making it more targeted and effective at attacking cancer cells without harming healthy cells.
How is it given?
This trial will aim to recruit people with non-small cell lung cancer — from early stages before surgery or radiation therapy, to late-stage disease or recurrence — to receive the vaccine alongside standard immunotherapy.
The first patient to receive the vaccine – Janusz Racz, 67, from London – received six consecutive injections given at five-minute intervals over half an hour.
Each vaccine contained different RNA strands. He would get the vaccine every week for 6 weeks in a row, then every 3 weeks for a year, then every 3 weeks for a total of 54 weeks.
What are the possible outcomes for lung cancer patients who receive the vaccine?
Professor Siu Ming Lee, a consultant medical oncologist at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH), who is leading the UK trial, said he hoped the vaccine would prevent lung cancer from returning.
According to Professor Lee, immunotherapy has made “significant progress,” but it still does not successfully treat all lung cancer patients.
He describes the vaccine as “another additional immune attack” and said it could be an “extra boost” to improve survival rates for people with the disease.
What could happen next?
As a Phase 1 study, this trial will determine the safety of the BNT116 vaccine.
When a phase I trial is successful, researchers usually move on to phase II, which will look at effectiveness and usually includes a larger number of patients. A phase III trial is larger and usually compares a new treatment to standard treatment.
Professor Lee said he hopes the vaccine will eventually become “the standard of care around the world, saving many lives from lung cancer.”
Are there vaccines for other types of cancer?
Yes. Last April, a final phase 3 trial of an mRNA vaccine specifically for melanoma was launched at UCLH.
The vaccine is custom-made for each patient within a few weeks and works by telling the body to hunt down cancer cells and prevent the disease from coming back.
The phase II trial, which included drug companies Moderna and MSD, found that the treatment significantly reduced the risk of cancer returning in melanoma patients.
Last June, it also emerged that the first patient in England had received an mRNA vaccine for colon cancer, being developed by BioNTech and Genentech. The trial at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham forms part of NHS England’s cancer vaccine rollout platform.
What do these vaccines mean for cancer care and what might the future hold?
Professor Lee described these vaccines as “the next big thing in cancer treatment.”
BNT116 is manufactured by BioNTech, which signed an agreement with the government in July 2023 to provide up to 10,000 patients with precision cancer immunotherapies by 2030.
NHS England’s cancer vaccine rollout platform is also working to speed up access to vaccines for patients as soon as possible.