Maintenance. Cancer vaccine developed in Toulouse shows “enthusiastic results”
Professor Jean-Pierre Delord of the Toulouse University Cancer Institute is piloting the clinical trial with three other colleagues. The first results of phase I indicate that the vaccine elicited in the patients a response of their immune system against the cancer cells.
It is an international project with more than encouraging results in the fight against cancer and its recurrence. The first results of the clinical trial on a vaccine against head and neck cancers, and ovarian cancer as the patients’ immune system was boosted after several injections. And this success is partly Toulouse.
In France, Toulouse Oncopole University Cancer Institute (IUCT-Oncopole), and Institut Curie are piloting these tests, with the United Kingdom and the United States. And it was at the IUCT-Oncopole that the very first French patient received in January 2021 a dose of the individualized vaccine TG4050. Professor of Oncology Jean-Pierre Delord Director General of the IUCT-Oncopole and thinternational expert in phase I studies, is conducting the clinical trial in Toulouse and reviewing this major breakthrough with France 3 Occitanie.
How does this vaccine work?
“It is an individualized vaccine, that is to say it is manufactured for each patient. First we operate to reduce his tumor, then we analyze it to sequence his DNA and we look for s It contains mutations which lead to the appearance of cells immune system.
We are talking about “promising results” for the first results of phase I of the clinical trial …
“A total of six patients have been vaccinated worldwide, and so far we have complete results on 4 of them. What we have seen are signs that the white blood cells are able to attack the We succeeded in awakening the immune system of the patients by activating the killer cells, and also those which will activate the immune memory. “
When can we imagine curing these types of cancers?
“I don’t know. It is still too early to say whether this immune response will be durable enough and effective over time. And we do not yet know if this is sufficient to cure patients. These results are very exciting, because we triggered an immune system response. But we have to be careful, it is not enough to say that we can cure cancer “.
If it turns out to be effective, could it tackle any cancer?
“Unfortunately no, because some cancers appear with a small number of abnormalities, and are invisible to the immune system. Our vaccine is concerned with cancers that have an average level of mutations, and they represent between 40 and 60% of cancers. one might think of using for example breast cancer, digestive tumor, lung cancer … The list goes on. “
Two trials are currently underway. The first concerns human papillomavirus negative patients with head and neck cancers, while the second concerns women with ovarian cancer.