Thousands of NHS patients will get personalised cancer vaccines over the next year in what has been hailed a ‘landmark moment’ for cancer care.
Doctors believe the treatments — which are custom built for patients to stop their cancer returning — will herald a new era in fighting the disease.
With dozens of vaccines in the pipeline, the NHS is launching a ‘world-leading’ scheme which will ‘matchmake’ hospital patients with clinical trials.
This will fast track anyone wanting to take part in groundbreaking research to their nearest clinical site wherever they are in the country, with experts hoping they will one day become standard care.
Elliot Pfebve, a 55-year-old father of four, became the first patient to receive a bowel cancer vaccine on the NHS, getting his first dose at University Hospitals Birmingham in March.
Elliot Pfebve (pictured), a 55-year-old father of four, became the first patient to receive a bowel cancer vaccine on the NHS, getting his first dose at University Hospitals Birmingham in March
Coventry University lecturer Elliot Pfebv (centre) had no cancer symptoms and was diagnosed through a routine health check with his GP
Pictured, research nurses Ria (left), Hayley (right) and Dr Victoria Kunene (centre), a consultant medical oncologist at the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham
Early results of the vaccine, made by BioNTech, will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual conference in Chicago tomorrow.
It is one of several trials involving vaccines for skin, bowel and lung cancer showing preliminary results at the world’s largest cancer conference this week.
Dozens of patients have started receiving vaccines through the ‘cancer vaccine launch pad’, with thousands expected to enroll by 2026.
Chief executive Amanda Pritchard said the NHS was in a ‘unique position to deliver this kind of world-leading research at size and scale.’
She said: ‘Seeing Elliot receive his first treatment as part of the Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad is a landmark moment for patients and the health service as we seek to develop better and more effective ways to stop this disease.
‘Thanks to advances in care and treatment, cancer survival is at an all-time high in this country, but these vaccine trials could one day offer us a way of vaccinating people against their own cancer to help save more lives.’
More than 30 hospitals have signed up to take part in the cancer trials, which include melanoma, prostate, head and neck cancers and bowel to date.
As new treatments come online, doctors expect to start testing similar vaccines for common cancers including breast and lung on UK patients.
The process uses genetic material – RNA – from a patient’s tumour to develop the vaccine, which is then given to the patients via a series of infusions at hospital.
In the same way traditional vaccines use part of the virus to prevent disease, these use harmless proteins from the surface of cancer cells, known as antigens.
When these antigens are introduced into the body, it should stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies against them, which then kill the cancer cells.
Unlike traditional vaccines, cancer tumours are individual to each patient so must be tailored to each patient.
While trials are funded by drug-makers so free for the NHS, this kind of personalised treatment is unlikely to be cheap should any of the vaccines get the go-ahead by regulators.
Last year, the Government signed an agreement with BioNTech to provide up to 10,000 patients with precision cancer immunotherapies by 2030, making it a world-leader in the field.
The NHS launch pad is helping to accelerate the identification of eligible patients for those trials in England.
The concept of vaccinating against cancer has been around for decades, but only now has it become a realistic prospect for shrinking tumours thanks to new technology such as genome sequencing.
With all cancers driven by genetic mutations that help them attack cells, grow and spread, scientists hope this method could one day be used against all cancers.
Alongside BioNTech, companies including Moderna and Merck are also in talks to set up cancer vaccine trials in the UK.
Working in partnership with Genomics England those who take part will have a sample of their cancer tissue and a blood test taken before undergoing traditional treatment, such as chemotherapy.
If they meet the eligibility criteria, they can be referred to their nearest participating NHS site up to 12 months after their initial treatment finishes.
The process uses genetic material – RNA – from a patient’s tumour to develop the vaccine, which is then given to the patients via a series of infusions at hospital
Professor Peter Johnson, NHS national clinical director for cancer at the NHS, said this is ‘a very important development in the future treatment of cancer’.
He said: We see this as something which is likely to become more and more important for us and in a way of treating people which is quite different to what we’ve done previously with things like chemotherapy, which although it can reduce the chances of some cancers coming back is far from universally effective and of course has a lot of side effects.
‘We obviously need to wait to see the results of the trials. But the preliminary data certainly are starting to look very promising.
‘That’s one of the reasons why we’ve committed time and effort and resource into setting up this system to make sure that we get the evidence as quickly as possible.’
Executive Director of Research and Innovation at Cancer Research UK, Iain Foulkes, said: ‘It’s incredibly exciting that patients in England are beginning to access personalised cancer vaccines for bowel cancer.
‘This technology pioneers the use of mRNA-based vaccines to sensitise people’s immune system and in turn detect and target cancer at its earliest stages.
‘Clinical trials like this are vital in helping more people live longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer. If successful, the vaccine will be a game changer in preventing the onset or return of bowel cancer.’