A vaccine for a deadly form of kidney has proven effective in tests, which may soon lead to widespread roll-out of the therapy, experts claim.
In clinical trials of its IMA901 vaccine, immatics biotechnologies GmbH revealed that renal cell carcinoma patients experienced longer survival times when their immune system produced an immune response to more than one of the peptides in the formulation.
IMA901 is the first multi-peptide therapeutic cancer vaccine for renal cell carcinoma and comprises ten tumour-associated peptides that are naturally presented on tumour cells in patients.
The results of the study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, reveal that in contrast with a number of other cancer vaccine approaches, patients who mount a broad anti-tumour immune response experience extended survival.
Researchers also identified two serum biomarkers which may help to determine which patients are most likely to achieve an overall survival benefit in future studies with IMA901.
The current pivotal phase 3 trial with IMA901 aims to confirm that these two biomarkers are predictive of improved overall survival, explained Dr Harpreet Singh, immatics’ chief scientific officer and corresponding author of the publication.
"This journey has produced several novel findings in the cancer immunotherapy field which we believe will advance the development of cancer vaccines and could change the way the disease is managed and treated," he added.