The good news
Vaccines for the prevention and or treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are being studied in new clinical trials.
Why it’s important
Vaccines have long been used to successfully prevent the development of certain infectious diseases. Vaccines are substances used to stimulate the immune system. They often contain an inactivated or weakened form of the causative pathogen (virus, bacteria, etc.) or portions of the same agent. Over the years, vaccines have been developed for the treatment of cancer but unfortunately have not been very effective. New technology has become available based on the development of the vaccines used to quell the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lung cancer cells are not normal and will carry proteins on the cell surface called neoantigens that can serve as targets for the immune e system. Researchers at the University of Oxford have initiated the LungVax project aimed at employing a vaccine to prevent the development of lung cancer in patients at high risk.
Another lung cancer vaccine, BNT116, is a messenger RNA vaccine (similar to Covid-19 vaccines) that works by stimulating the immune system with the presentation of tumor markers from NSCLC. An early phase trial (phase 1) has recently started in the UK treating patients with NSCLC.
What it means for patients
Immunotherapy has become very important in the treatment of NSCLC. Vaccines are another form of immunotherapy that are directed at specific abnormalities on the cancer cell. It is a treatment that is old, but at the same time, new again because of novel technology. Trials involving these vaccines are in very early development and we will not know what they will mean for patients for quite some time.
What to look for
Expect to see the development of more vaccines that will enter clinical trials covering a number of different scenarios in the treatment of lung cancer. A phase 2 trial is currently underway assessing the BNT116 vaccine in combination with the checkpoint inhibitor cemiplimab as first therapy for patients with advanced NSCLC whose tumors express PD-L1 ≥50% (NCT05557591). More to come!