Cancer Vaccine Aims to Prevent Recurrence

Aug 24, 2020 by CenTrial



A phase II clinical trial will begin this fall to test a vaccine that hopes to prevent recurrence of gastric, pancreatic, esophageal, and colon cancers.

The first version of the vaccine produced only a 50% success rate, while in this newly revised version, 90% of patients are expected to develop an immune response strong enough to prevent a cancer recurrence.

Patients who have previously been treated for gastric, pancreatic, esophageal, or colon cancers and are in remission may qualify to take part in this new trial.

The vaccine was altered so that it is more likely to generate immunity against cancer before the immune system can clear it from the body.

"This cancer vaccine is really designed to help the body keep the cancer from coming back," says Babar Bashir, MD, assistance professor of medical oncology at Jefferson and researcher with the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, who is the clinical leader on the trial.

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