A scientist examines a tumor sample.
THE GUARDIAN SCREENSHOT
The Guardian reported on February 4 that a revolutionary new cancer treatment method, called mRNA therapy, has just been applied to patients at Hammersmith Hospital in West London (UK).
The trial aims to evaluate the safety and efficacy of this therapy in the treatment of melanoma, lung cancer and other solid tumors.
The new treatment uses genetic material called messenger RNA (mRNA) and works by delivering shared signals from the tumor to the patient's immune system. The goal is to help the immune system recognize and fight cancer cells that have those signals.
“New mRNA-based cancer immunotherapies offer a way to mobilise a patient’s own immune system to fight their cancer,” says Dr David Pinato at Imperial College London.
The research is still in its early stages and could be years away from being used in patients, Pinato said, but the new trial lays important groundwork that could lead to new, less toxic and more precise cancer therapies.
Several cancer vaccines have recently entered clinical trials around the world. They fall into two categories: personalized cancer immunotherapies, which rely on extracting a patient’s own genetic material from their tumor. The second group includes cancer immunotherapies, such as the mRNA therapy recently launched in London, which are “off-the-shelf” and tailored to a specific type of cancer.
The main aim of the new trial, called Mobilize, is to find out whether this particular mRNA therapy is safe and tolerable in patients with lung or skin cancer and can shrink tumours. It will be used alone in some cases and in combination with the existing cancer drug pembrolizumab in others.
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The researchers say that although the therapy is still in the early stages of testing, they hope it could eventually provide a new treatment option for hard-to-treat cancers, if it proves safe and effective.
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