LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Finally, there is hope in the battle against one of the deadliest forms of cancer we have in the form of a personalized vaccine for pancreatic cancer.
“During the pandemic, a company in Europe partnered with a pharmaceutical company in America and created a personalized vaccine against Covid," said Dr. Joseph Kim, the Chief of Surgical Oncology at the University of Kentucky’s Chandler Hospital. "It was an mRNA vaccine. People thought this was cool and wondered if they could create vaccines that target cancer."
“Four to five years later that's exactly what we have. We have a mRNA personalized vaccine for pancreatic cancer,” Dr. Kim added, before heading to the operating room to remove a cancerous tumor from a patient’s pancreas.
This patient might qualify for the vaccine, which leads to the most important part of this scientific breakthrough.
This vaccine isn’t like those we take for the flu or Covid, or most anything else. In this case, a patient must first have been diagnosed with a treatable form of pancreatic cancer, which likely means that it was caught early.
“In this case patients have to have the tumor removed,” Dr. Kim began to explain. “We send it to Europe for a personalized vaccine to be created and patients. after recovering from surgery, will receive the vaccine. Patients who have metastatic disease with pancreatic cancer aren't eligible. They must have resectable disease so we can send it so that the vaccine can be made."
Scientists in Europe take the tumor and sequence the vaccine for the individual patient. The idea to is reduce or eliminate the chance of having a pancreatic cancer recurrence.
The tumor must also be in a location that makes it safe to remove. One scan the doctor showed, revealed a tumor that was too close to the spleen, so a resection wasn’t possible.
Currently, there is good news as it pertains to the vaccine itself. It has come through phase-1 of clinical trials. Those who take part in the trials will be given the vaccine at no cost.
“This mRNA vaccine for pancreatic cancer has been shown to be safe in phase 1 trials. And it was found to be efficacious, meaning it was found to work very well against pancreatic cancer,” Dr. Kim said.
Only a select few facilities in America were chosen to work on this, so it is a feather in the cap for UK, Chandler, and the Markey Cancer Center.
“Pancreatic cancer is one of those cancers where advances in treatment and survival are few and far between. So, this is a potential breakthrough,” Dr. Kim said, before adding that there are currently six to eight patients being evaluated to see if they meet the qualifications for the vaccine.
“It’s great to see this available for our patients in Kentucky and the surrounding areas,” Kim said.”
