This vaccine was first tested against advanced lung cancers and the results were very encouraging. It is today used against several other cancers such as brain tumors, glioblastoma, a very aggressive cancer, or even liver cancer and cancers linked to Papillomavirus (uterus, vagina, anus). It can be administered alone or in combination with other cancer therapies.
Researchers have high expectations from these clinical trials. Indeed, the UCPVax vaccine is potentially applicable to the majority of cancers. It is a real hope for improving the quality and length of life of patients and sustainably combating the risks of relapses.
The speakers:
- Professor Olivier Adotévi, oncologist at Besançon University Hospital and Inserm research director, head of the UMR1098 “Immuno-molecular Therapeutics of Cancers” unit.
- Marion Jacquin, clinical research engineer at the Clinical Investigation Center, Besançon University Hospital.
The National Cancer Institute supported the UCPvax project with €438,292 through a call for projects launched in 2013.
Immunotherapy: mode of action
The role of the immune system is to protect the body. It is composed of a set of cells, tissues and organs whose function is to identify, control and destroy foreign particles, such as bacteria or viruses, as well as abnormal cells, such as cancer cells, before that they do not affect our body.
Sometimes cancer cells manage to evade the immune system so as not to be recognized as foreign or abnormal cells. The body’s defense mechanisms are then unable to target these tumor cells, which can thus proliferate.
Specific immunotherapy treatments have been developed to restore an appropriate immune response.
Immunotherapy does not directly target the tumor. It mainly acts on the patient’s immune system to make it able to attack cancer cells. Specific immunotherapy involves stimulating certain immune cells to make them more effective or making tumor cells more recognizable by the immune system. It is based on monoclonal antibodies, notably checkpoint inhibitors, bispecific antibodies, adoptive cell transfer and even anti-tumor vaccination.
Therapeutic vaccination: training the immune system against a specific target
Therapeutic vaccines are not intended to prevent the occurrence of a disease, like preventive vaccines, but are designed to treat, or help treat, cancer that is already present.
The goal of therapeutic vaccination is to stimulate and direct a patient’s immune system specifically against cancer cells.
Currently, two avenues are being explored: personalized vaccines, developed in the laboratory for each patient, and generic vaccines, targeting common antigens expressed by the same group of patients, identified upstream. In most cases, a more traditional immunotherapy based on the unblocking of immune checkpoints will be administered in addition.
Designing effective therapeutic vaccines remains a challenge but the results are very promising, like those of UCPAVax, considered a major advance in cancer research. It is a real hope for improving the quality of life of patients and sustainably combating the risks of relapses.
Learn more about immunotherapy.
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