Wed, 04/08/2015
Cynthia Fox, Science Writer
The first personalized cancer vaccine using genomics to define targets elicits robust immune responses, says a recent Science study. After running an exome analysis of three melanoma patients’ tumors, a team led by Washington University researchers chose seven tumor missense mutations from each patient most likely to elicit immune responses—and made personal vaccines.
Each patient was found to have existing T cells to one of the mutations, numbers further boosted by the vaccines. And in each patient, impressive armies of new T cells appeared that specifically targeted tumor neoantigens created by two of the other seven mutations.
“This is very promising," leading cancer immunotherapy researcher Carl June M.D., told Bioscience Technology. June, with the University of Pennsylvania, was not involved in the current study. "This is the first demonstration in cancer patients that neoantigens created by missense mutations can serve to generate high frequency responses in cancer patients after therapeutic vaccination."
http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/articles/2015/04/first-personalized-...