Tailor-made vaccines against colorectal cancer is now being trialled in NHS sites across England which could help to boost survival rates and stop the cancer returning. The first patient to receive the new vaccine, which is a type of immunotherapy treatment that boosts the body’s own immune system to help it find and destroy cancer, received the developmental jab at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust in May 2024, as part of a colorectal cancer vaccine trial sponsored by BioNTech SE.
The investigational cancer vaccines are created by analysing a patient’s tumour to identify mutations specific to their own cancer. Using this information, medics then create an experimental individualised cancer vaccine.
Principal Investigator for the trial at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Consultant Clinical Oncologist, Dr Victoria Kunene, said: ‘The investigational cancer vaccines are based on mRNA and are created by analysing a patient’s tumour to identify mutations specific to their own cancer. Using this information, we can create an individualised investigational cancer vaccine, but it is too early yet to say if these will be successful, though we are extremely hopeful. Based on the limited data we currently have of the in-body response to the vaccine, this could prove to be a significant and positive development for patients, but more data is yet needed and we continue to recruit suitable patients to the trial to establish this further.’
The developmental vaccines are designed to induce an immune response that may prevent cancer from returning after surgery on the primary tumour, by stimulating the patient’s immune system to specifically recognise and potentially destroy any remaining cancer cells.
Cancer vaccine trials are for people who have been diagnosed with cancer, either for the first time or for a returning cancer, who are undergoing treatment.
For these people, cancer vaccines may reduce the risk of the cancer coming back in the future. Not everybody who has been diagnosed or is having treatment for cancer will be eligible for a trial.
For more information about cancer vaccines
- Tailor-made cancer vaccines - 7th March 2025
- One-off blood tests for bowel cancer - 7th March 2025
- Colon cancer takes sides - 7th March 2025