Cancer vaccines gain momentum, after years of disappointing results Angus Chen By Angus Chen April 10, 2024

https://www.statnews.com/2024/04/10/cancer-vaccines-aacr-biontech-genentech-transgene/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9g2HFb0VJRW5n7UagAin0fBg5Ica-fJB-Tdjys46p-MEfey7AUg3jwx2DCDaG56qMJrmKoOKOHatSATKWwSbibsoMEAw&_hsmi=301951790&utm_content=301951790&utm_source=hs_email Cancer vaccines may have turned a corner. After a decade of challenges, researchers from industry and academia presented a slew of promising early data this week at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in San Diego. Results from two early-stage clinical trials hint at when cancer vaccines may become important: in preventing or lowering the risk of relapse after surgery. One is an early-phase trial of a personalized neoantigen vaccine from the French biotech Transgene for head and neck cancer. The other trial is of a BioNTech and Genentech cancer vaccine for pancreatic cancer patients after surgery. “If you’ve actually removed the majority of the tumor and you stimulate immunity, it can provide long-term immune-surveillance — that is a setting that makes a lot of sense,” said Catherine Wu of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “If you give it in a relapse setting, it’s just a higher hurdle to overcome.” STAT’s Angus Chen explains.