Doctors Start Trials of mRNA Vaccine for Lung Cancer
Source: GreekReporter.com
Doctors in seven countries have started the world’s first patient trials of a new mRNA vaccine against lung cancer.
The lung cancer vaccine, known as BNT116 and developed by Germany’s BioNTech, is designed to target non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), the most common type of lung cancer. Its goal is to eliminate cancer cells and, at the same time, prevent them from coming back by training the immune system to recognize these cancer cells and attack them.
Unlike chemotherapy, the vaccine attacks the cancer cells and does not destroy healthy cells around them. Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death. Experts say the mRNA vaccine could save thousands of lives.
According to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA), the phase 1 clinical trial, the first study of BNT116 in humans, has begun at 34 research institutions in seven countries: the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain, and Turkey.
A total of approximately 130 patients—from first-stage patients before surgery or radiation to advanced stage or metastatic cancer—will receive the vaccine alongside immunotherapy.
Similar to the COVID-19 vaccines, mRNA provides the immune system with cancer markers from MRSA to train the body to attack cancer cells that express these markers. The goal is to boost the patient’s immune system to respond to cancer.
Patient tests lung cancer vaccine
According to British newspaper The Guardian, the first patient in the United Kingdom was administered the vaccine for the purpose of fighting lung cancer on Tuesday, marking a critical milestone for the study.
Janusz Racz, 67, from London, was the first person to get the vaccine for lung cancer in the UK. He was diagnosed with cancer in May and had already begun chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
As an AI scientist, Racz said his profession inspired him to take part in the trial. “I am a scientist too, and I understand that the progress of science—especially in medicine—lies in people agreeing to be involved in such investigations,” he said.
He added that the new methodology is not available to other patients so the “new methodology not available for other patients can help me to get rid of the cancer.”
The patient also said that the faster the new mRNA vaccine is “implemented across the world, [the] more people will be saved.”
Oncology Professor Siow Ming Lee of University College London Hospital’s NHS foundation trust (UCLH), told the newspaper that this is the beginning of a “very exciting new era” in cancer research.
British Science Secretary Lord Vallance of Balham expressed his optimism on the trial and underlined that this lung cancer vaccine could save thousands of lives.
Dame Cally Palmer, national cancer director of NHS England, told BBC that shots like this one could be “revolutionary” in vaccinating people against their own cancers to prevent the disease from returning.
“A cancer diagnosis is very worrying, but access to groundbreaking trials—alongside other innovations to diagnose and treat cancers earlier—provides hope. We expect to see thousands more patients taking part in trials over the next few years,” she said.
The original article: GreekReporter.com .
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