‘Vaccine for cancer’ trial begins in Liverpool and this is how it works
Source: www.liverpoolecho.co.uk Author: Jonathan Humphries, Public Interest Reporter The first human trials for a groundbreaking 'vaccine for cancer' have begun in Liverpool with the first patients recruited. A team of cancer researchers from Liverpool Head & Neck Centre, The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, Liverpool University Hospitals and the University of Liverpool are trialling new vaccines that aim to harness a patients own immune system to fight cancer. Head and neck cancers, which include mouth, throat, tongue and sinus cancers, are particularly difficult to treat and carry a high risk of returning even after successful treatment. The first UK patient has now been recruited in Liverpool and vaccine production has begun at the Transgene laboratory in France. More patients will be recruited in coming months, with the aim of administering the first vaccine in a few months, when the usual treatment has been completed. The Transgene trial will involve around 30 people who have just completed treatment for advanced, but still operable, HPV-negative (not linked to human papilloma virus) squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). How does the vaccine work? Head and neck cancer can involve many different kinds of gene mutations resulting in the production of new proteins, called ‘neoantigens’, that vary widely between patients. The Transgene trial aims to produce individualised ‘therapeutic vaccines’, designed to trigger an immune response to the new antigen produced by a particular gene mutation linked to each patient’s own head and neck cancer. Chief Investigator for the UK trial, Professor Christian Ottensmeier, [...]