By Lourdes Hurtado and Gabriela Martínez
The same technology that protects us against COVID-19 could now save people with pancreatic cancer. Scientists have developed a messenger RNA vaccine that has proven effective in delaying or preventing the recurrence of pancreatic cancerous tumors.
"It is a pride and also a luck to be able to participate in a trial like this and see that what we do every day translates into something as tangible as eight patients who are still there who do not have disease. It's a wonderful thing," Dr. Pablo Guasp, who is part of the team of researchers in New York who extracted the tumors of 16 patients and sent samples to the company Biontech in Germany, a company that manufactured, together with Pfizer, the COVID-19 vaccine, told Noticias Telemundo.
"The goal of the vaccine is to generate an immune response, in this case personalized, which means that each patient receives a vaccine that has been generated specifically for their tumor," Guasp said. "That's one of the keys to this trial, thatevery one gets their own vaccine," he reiterated. The results of the first-phase clinical trial were published in the journal Nature, in an article led by researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
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The genetic makeup of the samples was analyzed in Germany and personalized vaccines were created designed to train each patient's immune system to attack those tumors in the pancreas. It is one of the most aggressive and difficult to diagnose types of cancer, lethal in 88% of cases. It is the third leading cause of death in the United States, the seventh in the world.
A silent disease
"The pancreas itself is located in the back of the abdomen and the cancer usually grows without symptoms, by the time the diagnosis is made, many times the cancer is already quite advanced," explains Dr. Horacio Asbun, chief of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Miami Cancer Institute, who was not involved in the research. He adds that even when removed in time, between 60 and 80% of patients have recurrence of these tumors.
Therefore, although these are preliminary results, he is excited about this study. "[The vaccine] causes the body itself to attack any potential cells that it might turn to, long before any diagnostic evidence can discover that those cells are coming," he said.
Although this cancer usually progresses silently, there are some symptoms that usually lead to the diagnosis of the disease. According to the Anceatic Cancer Action Network, these symptoms include: jaundice (yellowing of the skin), abdominal or back pain, unexplained weight loss, and poor appetite. A person in the advanced stages of the disease may experience all of these symptoms and others such as ascites (accumulation of fluid in the abdominal cavity) and blood clots (commonly in the legs). Other symptoms, such as fatigue, weakness, digestive problems and depression, can occur at any time.
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When Carlos Ayala's mother was diagnosed with this cancer in 2011, the survival rate was just 3% (compared to 12% today). "My mom lasted 14 months but it was 14 months of great anguish. Seeing her lose so much weight, seeing her as she suffered every time she had her treatment was something very devastating for us," he told Noticias Telemundo.
Therefore, the results of the vaccine fill him with hope. "This has been something super innovative, it has been something super encouraging for our community," he said, adding that more resources are needed so that scientists can continue to develop treatments that can stop the disease that took his mother.
Here you can access information in Spanish about pancreatic cancer: specialists, treatment options, support groups and more. Call 877-272-6226. Patient service programs can help.