Could personalised cancer vaccines have saved many beloved lives!
New Breakthrough
Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have reached a new milestone. They’ve shown that their personalised vaccine, used with an immune checkpoint inhibitor, is safe and can trigger strong immune responses in people with bladder cancer.
The Phase 1 study, led by Dr. Nina Bhardwaj and Dr. Matthew Galsky, was published in the journal -- Nature Cancer, this week. It adds to the growing evidence that personalised vaccines may improve the safety and effectiveness of current cancer treatments.
“Our findings move the field forward by showing how personalized vaccines like PGV001 can work in bladder cancer,” says Dr. Bhardwaj, Ward-Coleman Chair in Cancer Research and Director of Mount Sinai’s Vaccine and Cell Therapy Lab.
“We’ve proven these custom vaccines can consistently activate the immune system in powerful, cancer-fighting ways," he added.
Mount Sinai’s experimental vaccine, called PGV001, is designed to target the unique mutations in each patient’s tumor. Using advanced tumor sequencing and a computer-based system created by Mount Sinai experts, the team identifies which tumor changes—called neoantigens—are most likely to alert the immune system. They then create a custom vaccine made from lab-designed peptides based on those markers.
When combined with treatments like the immunotherapy drug atezolizumab, PGV001 helps train the immune system to attack cancer cells while sparing healthy ones.
Too many precious lives are lost far too soon. But with new hope on the horizon, perhaps we can save some.
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