Mike Magee
With AI infused new technologies, discoveries are coming fast and furious. But be prepared to separate fact from fiction, and read beyond the headlines, if you’re looking for an immediate cure from a life-threatening illness.
A perfect case in point was last week’s much heralded, pre-published claims around a new vaccine for cancer. The New York Times headline was optimistic to be sure. It read “A New mRNA Vaccine Could Prevent Skin Cancer From Returning.” Sounds like we’re at the finish line, but the truth is a bit more nuanced.
What do we know?
- Merck and Moderna has completed a late stage trial on a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine against metastatic melanoma called intismerin that appears to be effective when used with the immunotherapy drug Keyruda (and more effective than Keyruda alone).
- How much more effective? We don’t know. No facts or figures were provided beyond the fact that 1,137 people were involved, but more details are promised to be revealed in a scientific meeting, and/or peer reviewed publication soon.
- The big news is that customized personalized cancer vaccines (delivered from a patients own tumor DNA and trained to trigger the patients immune system to attack the tumor cells marker “neoantigens”) can be manufactured (from start to finish) cost-effectively using Covid style mRNA technology in just 6 weeks.
- Therapeutic vaccines in the future should help prevent widespread tumor cells from growing and spreading, and the tumors themselves fro returning.
- How far are we from that reality? We don’t know. The tumors themselves are not defenseless. They can make chemical molecules that trick the militarized immune cells. The “neoantigens” can be hard to find. The vaccines may enable the immune system to attack normal cells by mistake. The tumor in some cases may be too large for the immune system to effectively conquer by virtue of the sheer mass of cells involved. And the patient’s immune system may already be compromised and weakened, unable to adequately respond to the vaccine provocation.
Currently studies exist using mRNA technology not only for metastatic melanoma but also for pancreatic cancer, neuroblastoma, lung cancer, colon cancer and others.
The progress is real – both in targeting a patients own tumor antigens, and in using the speed and efficient production of vaccines through mRNA. So as they say, “keep an eye on this space” but don’t just read the headlines, demand the data.
