RTL GUEST – Cancer: what we know about the vaccine against relapse developed in Toulouse
This is a first in Europe and a huge hope for many patients: a vaccine against cancer recurrence developed in Toulouse. To talk about it, RTL received this Tuesday Jean-Pierre Delord, professor in medical oncology, director general of the University Institute of Cancer Toulouse Oncopole (IUCT). “It’s an international project,” he explains.
“There were once attempts to make vaccines but they weren’t major ones. The idea is that now science and technology are enabling us for each patient, obtaining the complete sequencing of the tumor genome, to compare it to its normal genome and see where cancer cells have genetic abnormalitiesยป, Explains the oncologist.
“When the patient is detected for his cancer, of course he will be treated, but at the time of the operation the tumor is recovered and in less than three months a vaccine can be manufactured“, he continues.” In this program, there are ENT cancers, which affect 15,000 people per year. There is another program for patients with ovarian cancer “.
Regarding the technology used, “it is the meeting between the hard sciences and the experimental sciences,” he says. “It’s Messenger RNA technology yes, but there is also a viral vector which helps boost the viral response“, adds Jean-Pierre Delord who describes” an extremely exciting situation “.