‘Promising results’ witnessed in cancer vaccine tests

Research on a new cancer vaccine has shown it is capable of obtaining an immune response in most patients with bowel, kidney and prostate cancer.

At a news briefing on cancer therapies in Geneva on Thursday, Dr Richard Harrop, said: “Our exploratory analyses of data from nine different trials of TroVax demonstrate significant associations between immune responses and overall survival in patients with colorectal cancer, renal cancer and prostate cancer.

The vaccine is made up of a modified virus (Modified Vaccinia Ankara [MVA]), which acts as a vehicle to transport a second component, a gene that produces an antigen that is present in most solid tumours, called 5T4.

TroVax is injected into patients whose solid tumours have the 5T4 tumour antigen, so that the vaccine can trigger the body’s natural immune responses to mobilise against 5T4.

As part of the their study, the researchers tested 180 patients for antibody responses to the vaccination, with 88 per cent showing a positive responses to 5T4 and 98 per cent showing positive responses to MVA.

Their study showed that the highest levels of antibody responses were detected after an average of two vaccinations for the MVA part of the vaccine and after four for 5T4.