Paolo A. Ascierto, Full Professor of Oncology at the University of Naples Federico II and Director of the Department of Melanoma, Cancer Immunotherapy and Developmental Therapeutics at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori IRCCS Fondazione Pascale in Naples, Italy, shared on LinkedIn:
“mRNA vaccines and tumors: research continues, beyond melanoma!
When we hear about mRNA vaccines, we generally think of infection prevention. But mRNA technology may also have another application: stimulating the immune system to recognize and fight cancer cells.
This is the goal of mRNA-4359, an investigational therapeutic mRNA vaccine currently being studied in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial.
In a simple way, mRNA-4359 contains mRNA that encodes portions of two proteins, IDO1 and PD-L1, associated with the tumor microenvironment.
The goal is to activate specific T lymphocytes so that they recognize the cells that express these targets and contribute to the antitumor response.
Who could it be aimed at?
The study is evaluating treatment in several groups of patients with advanced solid tumors, including:
- Advanced or metastatic melanoma, both in patients not yet systemically treated in this setting, and in patients who have developed resistance to immunotherapies.
- Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), including patients with advanced/metastatic disease and untreated patients in this setting with PD-L1 ≥50%, in the absence of known EGFR or ALK mutations.
- Patients with other solid tumors, including non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, head and neck cancers, stable microsatellite colorectal cancer, basal cell carcinoma, and triple-negative breast cancer, were also evaluated in the initial phase of the study.
In some groups, mRNA-4359 is studied alone, while in others it is combined with already known immunotherapies, such as pembrolizumab or ipilimumab + nivolumab, with the aim of enhancing the immune response against the tumor.
The frontier of mRNA vaccines could therefore go beyond infection prevention, coming to use our own immune system as a weapon against cancer.
If you are a patient with the characteristics described and would like to receive more information about the possibility of participating in the study, you can contact us directly:
melanoma.immunoterapia@istitutotumori.na.it
Our team will evaluate the possibility of access to the study based on the criteria provided for by the protocol.”
You can also read: This Week in Cancer News Featuring a Melanoma Cancer Vaccine – AACR
