CINCINNATI — The University of Cincinnati Cancer Center is enrolling patients in a new clinical trial to test a vaccine to treat pancreatic cancer, according to a press release.
The hospital is the first in the Midwest to participate in the Phase 2 trial, the press release says.
The vaccine being tested builds on the same mRNA technology that was used to develop the vaccines for COVID-19, the press release says.
"They took the COVID virus and sequenced it and then made a vaccine against its RNA sequence and here they do the same thing," said Davendra Sohal, MD and site principal investigator. "After surgery to remove the tumor, a piece of it is taken and sent to the lab. They sequence the tumor, make a highly personalized vaccine to target each person's cancer specifically and send it back to us."
According to UC, the vaccine is developed in about four to six weeks while patients are recovering from surgery. That personalized vaccine is then used for six weekly injections.
The patient then undergoes six months of standard chemotherapy, followed by six more vaccine injectors as booster shots.
"There's hardly any downside," said Sohal. "These patients all get surgery and all get chemotherapy anyway. There's no placebo and there's no shortchanging them on standard treatment."
Omitting a placebo from the vaccine trial means everyone participating will receive a real dose of the vaccine, rather than a benign control treatment.
Any patient diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that can be treated with surgery who has not started other treatments is eligible to enroll in the vaccine trial, Sohal said.
In total, the trial is hoping to enroll 260 patients across all participating trial sites globally; Sohal said he hopes to enroll as many patients as possible in Cincinnati.
The press release says side effects of the vaccine reported in Phase 1 of the clinical trial were minimal and similar to those for the COVID-19 vaccinations. Those side effects included mild aches, chills and a mild fever.
In the Phase 1 trial, however, Sohal said eight out of 32 patients were completely cured of their pancreatic cancer.
"That looks like a small number, but a 25% cure in pancreas cancer is much better than the current, barely 5% cure," said Sohal. "So this can be game changing."
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