Cancer Center researchers study if vaccines can prevent lung cancer recurrence

WLWT highlighted a University of Cincinnati Cancer Center clinical trial exploring whether personalized mRNA vaccines are effective at reducing lung cancer recurrence.

"Cancer vaccines, vaccines to prevent cancer, have been kind of the holy grail. Can we design a vaccine to prevent cancer? That's not really quite what this trial is looking at," Jennifer Leddon, MD, Cancer Center physician researcher and assistant professor in UC's College of Medicine, told WLWT. "It's really more looking at can we prevent cancer recurrence in someone who's already had cancer? That's where the personalized comes in. They make the vaccine from your cancer. They figure out what are the vulnerabilities of your cancer that they can target."

The vaccines are developed from a patient's own surgically removed tumor. In combination with immunotherapy, doctors are seeking to train the body's immune system to fight off remaining cancer cells.

"I could absolutely envision a scenario where they use the information from this study to identify common tumor antigens that are shared across many patients," Leddon said. "Not just your individual but many patients, and design a preventative vaccine based off of that."

The trial is open for patients seeking additional treatment options for lung cancer. Patients who have localized Stage II-II B (N2) lung cancer and are candidates for surgery may qualify. Patients can call 513-585-UCCC for more information.

Read or watch the WLWT story.

Read about a similar pancreatic cancer vaccine trial at the Cancer Center.

Featured image at top: KRAS-driven lung cancer cells. Created by Eric Snyder, 2015. Image used courtesy of the National Institutes of Health.