Maria Babak, Head of The Babak Lab and Assistant Professor at City University of Hong Kong, shared The Babak Lab’s post on LinkedIn, adding:
“A promising step forward for cancer interception: Phase 1 data shows a 90% T-cell response with a mutant KRAS vaccine.”
The Babak Lab shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Can pancreatic cancer be intercepted before it develops?
Most pancreatic cancers begin with KRAS mutations, often years before an invasive tumor appears. A first-in-human Phase I study tested whether a mutant KRAS peptide vaccine (mKRAS-VAX) could generate long-lasting immune responses in individuals at high risk of pancreatic cancer.
Key Insights
- The vaccine targeted six common KRAS mutations.
- 18 of 20 participants (90%) developed mutant KRAS-specific T-cell responses.
- Both effector and central memory T cells remained detectable for up to 2 years, supporting durable immune surveillance.
- Treatment was well tolerated, with only grade 1–2 adverse events reported.
- The study demonstrates the feasibility of cancer interception by targeting oncogenic driver mutations before invasive disease develops.
Conclusion
Rather than treating established pancreatic cancer, this strategy aims to eliminate KRAS-mutant cells at the precancerous stage. Although larger studies are needed, these first-in-human results provide encouraging evidence that vaccination against shared driver mutations could become a new approach to cancer prevention in high-risk individuals.
Image generated using Sora by OpenAI.”
Title: First-in-human testing of a mutant KRAS vaccine for pancreatic cancer interception in high-risk cohorts
Authors: S. Daniel Haldar, Amanda Huff, Hejia Henry Wang, Zirui Zhu, Maureen Berg, Jiayun Lu, Nancy Sun, Elizabeth Abou Diwan, Hassan Sinan, Christopher Thoburn, Matthew Guo, Takeichi Yoshida, Linda Chu, Anna Ferguson, Dimitrios Sidiropoulos, Luciane Kagohara, Won Jin Ho, Katherine Bever, Marina Baretti, Mark Yarchoan, Daniel Laheru, Julie Nauroth, Amy Thomas, Hao Wang, Nilofer Azad, Michael Goggins, Elizabeth Jaffee, Neeha Zaidi
Read the Full Article on AACR Journals
Other posts featuring Maria Babak on OncoDaily.