A personalized vaccine against ovarian cancer showed promising results, according to results of a study published in the medical journal Science Translational Medicine.
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania in the United States and the Vaudois University Hospital (CHUV) in Switzerland conducted this trial with 25 patients. The personalized vaccine was made from the patients’ own immune cells. They were exposed in the laboratory to the contents of tumor cells and then injected into patients to initiate a broader immune response. The main objective of the trial, conducted in patients with advanced ovarian cancer, was to determine the safety and feasibility of this protocol. The vaccine was given every three weeks, sometimes for up to 6 months.
“The idea is to mobilize an immune response that will target the tumor very broadly, hitting a variety of markers, including some that would only be found on that particular tumor,” said Janos L. Tanyi, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of the study.
About half of vaccinated patients responded well to the vaccine and tended to live much longer without tumor progression. The researchers observed a two-year survival rate of 100% in women who responded well to the vaccine against 25% in those who did not receive the vaccine.
“This vaccine appears to be safe for patients and elicits broad anti-tumor immunity. We believe it warrants further testing on larger cohorts,” said Janos L. Tanyi.
the ovarian cancer affects around 4,400 people per year. It is the 7th most common cancer in women. It most often appears after menopause (the average age of diagnosis is 65).
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