Cancer vaccine in Toulouse: “Bringing hope for a cure”
The Toulouse-Oncopole Cancer University Institute was the first site in Europe, in January 2021, to treat a patient with the individualized therapeutic vaccine TG4050 to prevent the recurrence of his ENT cancer. The first results communicated by the French biotech Transgene are encouraged. Explanations with Prof. Jean-Pierre Delord.
What do these first results mean for the TG4050 vaccine?
Six months ago, we observed that the treatment was well tolerated by our patients, some of whom received more than ten injections of the vaccine. Our patients are doing well, with no major side effects. Today, after this technological feat, blood tests in all analyzable patients (four out of four) detect that the treatment has developed an immune response. This to say that their immune system reacted vis-à-vis the neoantigens means that it did not recognize until then or which were inactive. These first results are just amazing. And making a vaccine in three months is good timing that allows us to treat cancer, to give the patient time to rest.
What’s next?
We are waiting for more precise results. We hope for lasting stimulation of the immune system, but we do not yet have the proof. For there to be no recurrence of the cancer, it will take several years.
Is this the start of a new era for cancer treatments?
I think we are in a new era for medicine and technology. Messenger RNA technology is known today with Covid but we have been working on it for decades in oncology. It takes time to understand the mechanisms and it also takes time for technological maturation. We are very enthusiastic, but we will be able to declare ourselves happy only when we have cured patients. The most important thing for us today is to put French research on the path to technological breakthrough and it is also to bring hope for a cure to patients who have relapsed from their cancer.