Scientists developed vaccine to combat brain cancer
US Experts have created a new cell therapy approach to target existing brain tumours and induce long-term immunity.
Published in the online journal, Science Translational Medicine, researchers have tested their new cancer-killing vaccine on an advanced model of a deadly brain cancer known as glioblastoma and have produced promising results.
Lead author of the study, Khalid Shah PHD, said: ‘Our team has pursued a simple idea: to take cancer cells and transform them into cancer killers and vaccines.
‘Using gene engineering, we are repurposing cancer cells to develop a therapeutic that kills tumour cells and stimulates the immune system to both destroy primary tumours and prevent cancer.’
Funded by the National Institutes of Health, Professor Shah’s research has become one-of-kind. Often, scientists focus on inactivated tumour cells when testing their research however, Mr Shah and his team looked at living tumour cells.
Similar to birds returning to their nest, Shah discovered living tumour cells travel long distances across the brain to get back to the site of other fellow tumour cells. After discovering this, the US experts repurposed the cells to release a tumour killing agent by using a gene editing tool.
Against this backdrop, the newly engineered cells were designed to express factors that would make them easier for the immune system to target and remember.
Khalid Shah said: ‘Throughout all of the work that we do in the centre, even when it is highly technical, we never lose sight of the patient.
‘Our goal is to take an innovative but translatable approach so that we can develop a therapeutic, cancer-killing vaccine that ultimately will have a lasting impact in medicine.’
According to research conducted by leading charity Cancer Research, brain tumours are the 9th most common form of cancer in the UK and have estimated that there will be 22 cases per 100,000 people by 2035.
Concluding their study, Shah and his team have stated that this strategy is applicable to a wider range of solid tumours and that further investigations of its applications are warranted.
As well as producing this positive research, new figures released by the NHS show 2022 marked the year a record number of cancer patients were treated, despite waiting lists being the longest ever.
Photo by Natasha Connell