New mRNA vaccine for deadly brain cancer triggers a strong immune response

For the first time, scientists have tested a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine in a patient with a deadly form of brain cancer - and it triggered a strong immune response.
The vaccine, which was described in a study published on May 1 in the journal Cell, was created by extracting genetic material called RNA from a tumor from a patient with glioblastoma, an aggressive type of cancer. The RNA was then replicated to make a vaccine from mRNA, which is a blueprint for what is inside every cell, including tumor cells.
This study represent an exciting advance in next generation cancer therapies that leverage mRNA, the same class of medicines used in the COVID-19 vaccines.
People have been developing cancer vaccines, or treatments that boost the body’s immune system attack against cancer cells, since the 1800s. However, cancer vaccines rarely mount an immune response strong enough to overcome the cancer.
Cancers mutate rapidly, so if doctors cut out a tumor and do a biopsy, the tumor itself may be different within 24 hours.
Up until now, cancer vaccines being tested have aimed to mount an immune response to a small number of molecular signatures from tumors from many different patients. In clinical trials, the vaccine material is often packaged into tiny lipid nanoparticles, but the trials typically only deliver a small number of particles and the vaccines themselves take months, if not years, to develop. However, cancer cells can adapt very quickly, figuring out ways to disable or block recognition by the local immune system.
By isolating all the mRNA signatures in a patient’s tumor, designing a larger lipid nanoparticle and delivering more of the mRNA particles at once, Sayour and his team demonstrated an aggressive immune response specific to the patient’s tumor. And because mRNA can be isolated, amplified, and packaged for delivery within a matter of days, these tailored vaccines can be generated in about a month.
This novel therapy could likely be tailored to mount an immune response against other tumors in conjunction with existing therapies.
However, the study is still in very early days. As with all immunotherapies, there is a risk of an out-of-control immune response.

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Watch this take 20 years to be approved.

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“It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” cancer is a fungus

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Vile