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Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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The German pharmaceutical company Immatics Biotechnologies reports in the journal Nature Medicine about the successful application of the multipeptide vaccine IMA901 it has created. In particular, patients with kidney cancer vaccinated with IMA901 demonstrated survival over a longer period.
In addition, the discovery of key markers, which, according to scientists, can indicate which of the patients will most likely have the most positive response to vaccination is reported.
Hypernphroma of the kidney is the most frequent type of this cancer. When the transition to the stage of metastasis, the survival prognosis becomes extremely negative. Modern methods of treating hypernephroma consist in the removal of the tumor, followed by the use of a wide variety of forms of immunotherapy, since irradiation and conventional chemotherapy have already proved ineffective. Immunotherapy reduces to the introduction of drugs that help the immune system itself to identify cancer cells as something unworthy of life. The idea is good, but there is almost no progress. Therefore, the news that the cancer vaccine demonstrates a real ability to activate the immune system, caused a healthy excitement among oncologists.
At once we will make a reservation: this vaccine - means therapeutic, instead of preventive, that is it is shown to use only in those cases when the cancer is already diagnosed. The development of IMA901 became possible after the detection of various antigens accumulating around tumors under certain conditions as a result of the growth of malignant cells. The vaccine is made up of ten peptides, which were previously found to be able to stimulate the immune systems of those patients who express previously seen antibodies. All this forces the immune system to activate and begin an attack on tumor cells.
The vaccine has already passed the first two stages of clinical trials and is now participating in the most responsible - the third. Its introduction allowed to significantly prolong the lives of patients who voluntarily agreed to participate in the experiment. So far, the prognosis of five-year survival for a person receiving traditional treatment does not exceed 60-70%.
One more thing. The authors of the vaccine described in detail two biomarkers discovered by them, which they believe are the signals to the most successful application of IMA901. True, scientists are not sure about the level of accuracy of these signals, so everything will fall into place after the third stage of clinical trials.
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