A clinical trial into a potential cancer vaccine is showing early ‘hopeful’ results, according to experts.
The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Liverpool is looking into the effectiveness of the so-called TG4050 jab in patients with head and neck cancers. All of the patients selected with the trial are administered with the vaccine following conventional treatment for their condition, Sky News has reported.
The vaccine, which is produced by French biotechnology company Transgene, is personalised from the individual patients’ own DNA, similar to the technology used in jabs made available during the Covid pandemic.
Genetically modified cells from the virus are then injected into the body in order to train the immune system to fight off cancer cells at an early stage to prevent lumps from forming.
It found that none of the first eight patients given the vaccine have relapsed, even after several months.
The cancer was said to have returned in two of eight patients who weren’t given the vaccine.
Similar trials of the vaccine in France and the US are said to be showing similar promising results in patients with ovarian cancer.
The data is currently too small for experts to make a firm statistical conclusion on the vaccine’s effectiveness.
However, Professor Christian Ottensemeier a consultant medical oncologist and director of clinical research at the cancer centre, said that he was “cautiously optimistic.”
He told Sky News: “I am really hopeful, yes. I am quite excited about it. All the data is pointing in the right direction.”
Professor Ottensemeier added: “If we can train the immune system to pick those cells that would otherwise lead to a relapse at a time when we can’t even see them, then the long-term survival chances for our patients is much higher.”
Experts have been attempting to hunt down a cure for cancer for a number of decades.
Cancer Research UK has estimated that around 375,400 people are stuck down with a new case of cancer every year.
Research into a potential vaccine for cancer is said to be at an early stage, with a number of clinical trials taking place across the globe.
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