Our fraught national debate over immunization and public health has overshadowed some extremely encouraging advances being made by researchers in the decades-long battle against cancer.
Recent news of a potential breakthrough vaccine for one of the most lethal of all cancers — pancreatic cancer — demonstrates why continued federal research support for such treatments remains so vital.
Once diagnosed, pancreatic cancer has been a death sentence for those afflicted in the vast majority of cases. With conventional treatments, just 13% of patients are alive five years after diagnosis, according to the American Cancer Society.
Recently disclosed results of the test of an experimental vaccine using messenger RNA (mRNA) on 16 patients were extraordinarily positive. The immune systems of eight of the 16 in the trial responded to the vaccine. Of those eight, seven were alive four to six years after surgery, according to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, which performed the study.
Of the eight patients whose systems didn’t respond, just two have survived to this point. The six who died survived a median of 3.4 years.
Obviously, this is a very small sample. A larger group is being tested in a second phase of clinical trials. This vaccine also is only for patients whose tumors are operable. Those diagnosed at later stages — such as former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, who has spoken openly and movingly about his experience — can’t currently benefit from this technology.
But this study is a real ray of hope for treating a disease that is the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. and essentially doesn’t respond to ordinary cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation.
The mRNA technology involves producing individualized vaccines, developed after patients have their pancreatic tumors removed and analyzed. When the vaccines work, the patient’s body is trained to produce so-called T cells that kill the cancer cells along with another kind of T cell that helps sustain the immune response.
“As we continue to learn more about how these vaccines work, there is a real belief and determination in the pancreatic cancer community that we can effectively treat this disease by training the patient’s own immune system,” said Dr. Vinod Balachandran, who led the trial and is Memorial Sloan Kettering’s director for cancer vaccines, in a release from the cancer center.
The early dramatic results from mRNA vaccines on cancer could help soften the suspicions some Americans have toward more common vaccines. They also could help restore Americans’ trust in medical science — indeed, in science generally. Medical science has blessed our generation with an abundance of preventive methods — including vaccines — and treatments that enable a far greater percentage of us to live longer and healthier lives than our forebears.
We should be grateful.
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