Doctors have begun testing on humans “the world’s first mRNA lung cancer vaccine in patients, as experts hailed its ‘groundbreaking’ potential to save thousands of lives,” reports The Guardian:
Lung cancer is the world’s leading cause of cancer death, accounting for about 1.8 million deaths every year. Survival rates in those with advanced forms of the disease, where tumors have spread, are particularly poor. Experts are testing a new [vaccine] that instructs the body to hunt down and kill cancer cells – then prevents them ever coming back. Known as BNT116 and made by BioNTech, the vaccine is designed to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common form of the disease.
The phase 1 clinical trial, the first human study of BNT116, has launched across 34 research sites in seven countries: the UK, US, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain and Turkey. The UK has six sites, located in England and Wales, with the first UK patient to receive the vaccine having their initial dose on Tuesday.
Overall, about 130 patients – from early-stage before surgery or radiotherapy, to late-stage disease or recurrent cancer – will be enrolled to have the [vaccine] alongside immunotherapy….The [vaccine] uses messenger RNA (mRNA), similar to Covid-19 vaccines, and works by presenting the immune system with tumor markers from NSCLC to prime the body to fight cancer cells expressing these markers. The aim is to strengthen a person’s immune response to cancer while leaving healthy cells untouched, unlike chemotherapy.
Janusz Racz, 67, [a scientist] from London, was the first person to have the vaccine in the UK. He was diagnosed in May and soon after started chemotherapy and radiotherapy……Racz received six consecutive injections five minutes apart over 30 minutes…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 54 weeks.
In other news, weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic help stave off some cancers, reports NPR. New personalized cancer vaccines cut death rates by 40-50% for some people suffering from skin or breast cancer.
A new blood test can detect which bowel cancer patients can receive a lifesaving immunotherapy rather than chemotherapy, enabling them to be cancer free after surgery. Around 10-15% of patients with stage two or three bowel cancer have a particular genetic make-up that enables them to benefit from the life-saving immunotherapy known as pembrolizumab.
Earlier, a blood test was developed that detects many brain cancers that doctors previously couldn’t detect until it is too late to save most victims.
The FDA can be very slow to approve life-saving medical tests. The FDA didn’t approve a home test for HIV until 24 years after it first received an application. According to an FDA advisory committee, the test held “the potential to prevent the transmission of more than 4,000 new HIV infections in its first year of use alone.” That means thousands of people likely got infected with AIDS as a result of the delay in approving it.
