An anti-tumor vaccine is possible. The Italian studio
A group of Italian researchers has tested an anti-tumor vaccine that does not attack cancer but instructs the immune system to fight the disease. And the results are promising. All the details
Treating tumors with a vaccine that can instruct the immune system to recognize and fight danger seems like a dream and instead it is what a group of Italian researchers from the Armenise-Harvard immunoregulation laboratory at the Italian Institute of Genomic Medicine (Iigm) of the Oncological Institute of Candiolo (Turin), in collaboration with the Italian-Swiss biotech Nouscom, have achieved.
HOW THE VACCINE WORKS
You might think that the discovery is about a drug that attacks the tumor and instead: "No, it's not a drug that fights the tumor. The beauty of this vaccine is that it puts the body itself in a position to fight its disease," Luigia Pace, one of the authors of the study published in Science Translational Medicine and director of the Armenise-Harvard immunoregulation laboratory, said in an interview with Repubblica.
The vaccine, called NOUS-209, enters the circulation and instructs the immune system to recognize cancer cells in order not only to activate the immune response against the tumor but also the effectiveness of immunotherapy drugs, counteracting the phenomena of resistance to these treatments.
The Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) is looking into the treatment.
A THERAPEUTIC VACCINE
This type of vaccine is a therapeutic vaccine, whose purpose – as for preventive vaccines used for infectious diseases – is to instruct the immune system to recognize and fight the danger, which in this case is the tumor.
As reported by Ansa, there are several strategies under study: one of these, that of the messenger RNA on which some anti-Covid vaccines are based, derives precisely from this line of research. In the case of the anti-tumor vaccine, instead, a gorilla adenovirus is used, made harmless and in charge of transporting different tracts of cancer cells against which to direct the immune system.
THE TRIAL
The vaccine, combined with an immunotherapy drug, was shown to be effective on 12 patients with a subtype of metastatic colon cancer.
"The trial involved 12 patients in the United States with a form of colon cancer at a metastatic stage – explained Pace to Repubblica -. Most have responded well to the vaccine, although it's been a year and a half since treatment and it's too early to talk about recovery. In some, the mass of the tumor is shrinking."
Vaccination, however, has also shown to build a memory in the immune system, which will then be able to remember mutations and recognize and eliminate cancer cells even after some time, thus putting a brake on metastases and relapses.
During the trial, patients did not undergo chemotherapy. "Today – continues Pace – chemo is fundamental to fight tumors. But I believe that sooner or later new therapies to fight cancer will be increasingly extended to new strategies based on immunotherapy."
IMMUNOTHERAPY + ANTI-TUMOR VACCINE
Immunotherapy, discovered in the 90s, consists of a blood sample from which the patient's lymphocytes are taken, that is, the cells of the immune system that are supposed to kill the cancer cells, but that the disease makes harmless.
With a genetic engineering intervention, explains Repubblica, the lymphocytes are awakened, made more aggressive and reinfused in the patient, where they finally begin to do their duty against cancer.
Immunotherapy alone, however, has limitations. It is not always effective, for reasons not yet clear. However, the study – although it is a recent approach – proposes to combine it with the anti-tumor vaccine.