It is hoped that a pioneering new vaccine could be a major breakthrough in treating the deadly and aggressive type of brain cancer that killed Tom Parker.
The Wanted singer died aged just 33 in 2022 after being diagnosed with malignant glioblastoma, a type of deadly tumor currently considered incurable.
The vaccine, which was tested on four adult patients, was found to have trained their immune systems to recognize and fight against cancer cells, preventing the tumor from growing out of control.
The vaccine, like other experimental treatments being studied, contains fragments of patients’ tumors, meaning no two shots are the same.
These cancer particles are designed to resemble a dangerous virus when injected back into the bloodstream, prompting the body to attack the remaining tumor in the brain.
The Wanted’s Tom Parker died in 2022 after being diagnosed with glioblastoma. Pictured: Tom Parker in Good Morning Britain’s Christmas special in December 2021
The disease also claimed the life of Beau Biden, the son of President Joe Biden. Pictured: Biden, then US vice president, with his son Beau, an army captain, in Baghdad in 2009.
The first human trial of the vaccine, tested on just four patients, found it triggered a strong immune response two days after injection.
It was developed by researchers at the University of Florida and uses the same mRNA technology developed during Covid.
This major breakthrough means scientists will now be able to test the vaccine on a wider group of brain cancer patients.
Around 24 people will be recruited for the next part of the trial.
The study’s lead author, Elias Sayour, a pediatric oncologist at the University of Florida, said: “In less than 48 hours, we were able to see these tumors go from what we call ‘cold’ – a cold immune, very few immune cells, a very silenced immune system. response – to a “hot” and very active immune response.
“It was very surprising given how quickly this happened, and it told us that we were able to very quickly activate the early part of the immune system against these cancers, which is key to unlocking the subsequent effects of the immune response.”
It gives hope to people battling the disease, which has also claimed the lives of Labor politician Tess Jowell, U.S. Senator John McCain and President Joe Biden’s son Beau.
The NHS has said it hopes cancer vaccines will be available to thousands of patients in the UK over the next five years, with experts saying these new types of treatments could offer hope to those diagnosed with currently incurable forms of the disease.
Glioblastoma has an average survival of approximately 15 months, and current standards of care involve surgery, radiation, and a combination of chemotherapy.
Researchers say the discovery represents a potential new way to activate the immune system to fight notoriously treatment-resistant cancers using an iteration of mRNA technology similar to Covid-19 vaccines.
Former Labor politician Dame Tessa Jowell died in 2018 after being diagnosed with the illness. Pictured: Tessa Jowell speaking in the House of Lords in January 2018
The NHS hopes cancer vaccines will be available to thousands of patients over the next five years. Pictured: A file image of a needle drawing liquid from a vial
However, there are two key differences: the use of a patient’s own tumor cells to create a personalized vaccine and a newly designed complex delivery mechanism within the vaccine.
In the group of four patients, genetic material called RNA was extracted from each patient’s tumor, then messenger RNA, or mRNA – the blueprint for what is inside each cell, including cells tumors – was amplified.
It was then wrapped in the newly designed vaccine so that the tumor cells resembled a dangerous virus when injected back into the bloodstream and triggered an immune system response.
The trial results mirror those of 10 pet dog patients with naturally occurring brain tumors, as well as those from clinical trials conducted in mice.
Although it is too early to assess the vaccine’s clinical effects, patients in the new trial either lived disease-free longer than expected or survived longer than expected.
Dr Sayour said: “I hope this could be a new paradigm for how we treat patients, a new technology platform for how we can modulate the immune system.
“I am hopeful to see how this could now synergize with other immunotherapies and perhaps unlock these immunotherapies.”
“We have shown in this article that it is possible to have synergy with other types of immunotherapies. So perhaps we can now take a combined approach to immunotherapy.”
The research is published in the journal Cell and comes after the announcement of the world’s first personalized mRNA cancer trial for melanoma.
The vaccine also has the potential to stop lung, bladder and kidney cancer.
It is tailor-made for each person in just a few weeks and works by telling the body to hunt down cancer cells and prevent the deadly disease from returning.
A phase 2 trial of the vaccine, involving pharmaceutical companies Moderna and MSD, found that it significantly reduced the risk of cancer recurrence in melanoma patients.
A final phase 3 trial has now been launched.
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