This is a huge development.
Vaccine for kidney and bowel cancers 'within three years'
Dailymail
Nov.14, 2006
A revolutionary cancer vaccine developed by UK scientists can destroy and shrink deadly tumours by using the body's own immune system, it has emerged.
In trials the jab has surpassed expectations, sparking hopes it could prove an effective treatment for cancers that strike tens of thousands of Britons each year.
One patient given the vaccine has seen his tumour disappear completely for more than six months.
Another two have seen their tumours shrink, and in three people the cancer has been halted in its tracks.
The researchers said results were 'exciting' and 'very encouraging'.
Oxford BioMedica, the British company behind the jab, is initially hoping it will provide a new treatment for kidney and bowel cancer.
Between them these cause 40,000 new cases and 20,000 deaths each year in the UK.
To date 150 patients have had the vaccine and 95 per cent of those that can be evaluated have had an 'anti-tumour response'.
If further trials prove successful, the vaccine could be licensed for use against kidney cancer within just three years.
Experts last night said the data suggests the 'gene therapy' vaccine could prove an effective treatment for a whole range of cancers. The new jab called TroVax works in a totally different way to existing treatments by harnessing the patient's own immune system to fight the disease.
The patient is given a series of injections in the arm containing a harmless virus and a gene for a protein called 5T4.
This protein is found on the surface of tumours but not on healthy cells.
By injecting the gene into the body, it triggers an immune system reaction which kills the cancer cells but leaves healthy tissue unharmed.
Data from an early trial involving 34 people with kidney cancer were revealed at a major American cancer conference earlier this year. Last week updated data was announced at a medical conference in Prague from the Phase II trial, in which people with renal cell carcinoma had the vaccine on its own or in combination with other standard treatments.
Renal cell carcinoma is a particularly aggressive form of kidney cancer which accounts for more than 80 per cent of the 6,000 cases of kidney cancer diagnosed each year in the UK and claims 3,400 lives annually.
Among the 18 given the treatment along with a drug called interleukin-2, one patient saw his tumour totally disappear.
Two patients have seen it reduce in size - one to the point where it can no longer be seen in his latest scan.
In another three their disease has been stable for more than three months with one patient finding his disease has halted for more than 46 weeks.
Dr Bob Amato, who led the US trials, said the trial was primarily designed to show the vaccine was safe and produced an immune system reaction.
To see that it was also helping shrink or halt the growth of tumours in some patients was an unexpected bonus.
'To find we are already seeing this kind of activity when it is not the primary objective makes it exciting,' he said.
'In some cases we have seen very significant responses.'
Among the kidney cancer patients, the vaccine only appears to work for the most common type known as 'clear cell renal cell carcinoma'. Those with a form known as 'papillary renal cell carcinoma' did not respond to the treatment during the trials.
The studies are still at an early stage and the latest results have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
But based on their success, a much larger study involving 700 patients around the world including dozens from the UK with this kind of kidney cancer is now being launched.
All patients will have had surgery to remove the tumour and they will then receive the jab, or a placebo, alongside with three different standard drug treatments.
Professor Robert Hawkins who is now starting the latest phase of trials at the Christie Hospital in Manchester, said the data from the phase II trials was 'very encouraging.'
'It would be rare that a patient would get rid of a tumour with standard treatment,' he said. 'The fact it has happened in a relatively small trial is encouraging.
'We hope this treatment will improve the outcome of patients and that is why we need larger trials with hundreds to prove whether this combination is better than existing treatments and causes no unexpected side effects.'
Dr Daljit Kaur, clinical trials research manager at Cancer Research UK, said TroVax developed out of original research by Manchester scientists who were funded by the charity.
'The data so far suggests TroVax could be an effective treatment for several types of cancer, including kidney cancer, which affects more than 6,600 people each year in the UK,' he said.
Oxford BioMedica was established in 1995 as a spin-out from Oxford University and specialises in the development of gene-based treatments.
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