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James Crowley: Disappointments and failures are normal parts of medical research and drug development

medscape.com

Dec 10, 2024, 07:23

James Crowley: Disappointments and failures are normal parts of medical research and drug development

James Crowley, Professor of Medicine emeritus at Brown University, shared a post by Wafik El-Deiry, Associate Dean for Oncologic Sciences at the Warren Alpert Medical School, on LinkedIn:

“But these disappointments and failures are normal parts of medical research and drug development and have allowed for incremental advances that helped fuel renewed interest and hope for cancer vaccines, when the timing was right, explained vaccine pioneer Larry W. Kwak, MD, PhD, deputy director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at City of Hope, Duarte, California.

When it comes to vaccine progress, timing makes a difference. In 2011, Kwak and his colleagues published promising phase 3 trial results on a personalized vaccine.

The vaccine was a patient-specific tumor-derived antigen for patients with follicular lymphoma in their first remission following chemotherapy. Patients who received the vaccine demonstrated significantly longer disease-free survival.

But, at the time, personalized vaccines faced strong headwinds due, largely, to high costs, and commercial interest failed to materialize. ‘That’s been the major hurdle for a long time,’ said Kwak.

Now, however, interest has returned alongside advances in technology and research. The big shift has been the emergence of lower-cost rapid-production mRNA and DNA platforms and a better understanding of how vaccines and potent immune stimulants, like checkpoint inhibitors, can work together to improve outcomes, he explained.

‘The timing wasn’t right’ back then, Kwak noted. ‘Now, it’s a different environment and a different time’.”

Quoting Wafik El-Deiry’s post:

“New Cancer Vaccines on the Horizon: Renewed Hope or Hype?”

Read further.

More posts featuring James Crowley and Wafik El-Deiry.

James P. Crowley is a Professor of Medicine Emeritus at Brown University and serves as a volunteer physician at the Rhode Island Free Clinic. He has held leadership positions in the medical community, including past President of the Rhode Island Medical Society and the last President of The Providence Medical Association.

Wafik S. El-Deiry, MD, PhD, FACP, FRSM, is the Associate Dean for Oncologic Sciences at the Warren Alpert Medical School and Director of the Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University and Director of the Joint Program in Cancer Biology at Brown University and affiliated hospitals.

He is the Editor in Chief at Oncotarget. Dr. El-Deiry discovered p21(WAF1) as a p53 target gene, cell cycle inhibitor, and tumor suppressor that explained the mammalian cell stress response. Dr. El-Deiry’s research is focused on mechanisms of therapy resistance with major efforts in drug discovery and development.