Pancreatic cancer vaccine underway

PressTV

April 17, 2011

UK Scientists are testing a new vaccine for treating pancreatic cancer in more than 1000 patients suffering from advanced forms of the disease.

TeloVac, which is now being tested in 53 UK hospitals, would not protect individuals against infectious diseases or cancer but would help the immune system to recognize and kill malignant cells in patients with pancreas tumor.

Researchers at TeloVac trial, who are using the new vaccine in combination with chemotherapy, hope the shot would boost the effects of the treatment by stimulating the immune system to fight the disease.

The vaccine, also named GV1001, contains small sections of telomerase -- a protein that is over-produced by cancer cells. The injection of the vaccine, therefore, presents the immune system with telomerase, helping T-cells to recognize and target the cancer cells more effectively.

Previous smaller studies have shown that patients who received the vaccine in addition to chemotherapy lived in average three months longer than those who had only undergone chemotherapy.

“"The problem is tumors are clever and are able to turn the immune cells into traitors which help to guard the tumor,” said Professor John Neoptolemos from Royal Liverpool University Hospital, who is helping to co-ordinate the trial. “The vaccine takes away the masking effect of the tumor.”

If TeloVac passes the current trial successfully, it would be available for treating advanced forms of pancreatic cancer by the end of 2013. However, more studies would be underway to assess its effectiveness in preventing pancreatic cancer and treating patients suffering from earlier stages of the disease.

Scientists hope the method could work on other types of cancers as well and therefore have planned a trial on patients with lung tumor for later this year.

“We strongly believe this has the potential to overcome the limits of other current cancer vaccines and become part of the standard of care not only for pancreatic cancer but for various other types of cancers,” said Jay Sangjae Kim, the founder of GemVax, the Korean company developing the TeloVac vaccine.

“In other words, a truly 'universal' vaccine will be available in the near future,” he added.

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