On January 15, 2021, a patient from Toulouse Oncopole in remission from throat cancer, became the very first Frenchman to receive a dose of a “personalized” vaccine specially designed to arm his immune system against the unique characteristics of his tumour. The objective was above all to prevent a possible relapse which, for ENT cancers, of which 15,000 cases are diagnosed each year in France, occurs in approximately half of patients “within 2 to 3 years”, according to oncologist Jean- Pierre Delord.
Two years later, ten have received their tailor-made vaccine designed by French biotech Transgene. “And, for the moment, none has relapsed” announced this Wednesday the Toulouse professor in charge of this first clinical study. “We are very happy with these results which are another encouraging sign,” he added. Another sign now being the certainty that this vaccine is “very well tolerated” by patients, apart from the usual small “inflammatory redness”.
Tackle hidden cancer cells
The product is inoculated with a viral vector. This is the only classic aspect of this “innovative treatment”. Transgene uses DNA sequencing and artificial intelligence to manufacture individualized doses in “three to four months”. “With this therapeutic vaccine, we teach the immune system how and where to attack the cancer of each patient”, specifies Hedi Ben Brahim, the general manager of the company based near Strasbourg. Moreover, while most new treatments are developed on patients in the acute phase of their illness, this comes at the very end: after surgery and after conventional treatment with chemo or radiotherapy, but also after the recovery phase. reconstruction and repair of the damage caused by these “head-neck” cancers. “The idea is to attack the last cells that this cancer could have left in the body”, adds Jean-Pierre Delord, those which will escape the scanner during the first control visits or have migrated far from the original tumour.
Vaccinated patients are then monitored through regular blood tests to ensure that their boosted immune system is on standby, and that an army of T cells [pour tueurs] specifically trained is ready to fight at the slightest warning sign. “We are now convinced that we will know how to protect patients, prolong their survival and why not cure them”, assures Maha Ayyoub, the immunologist in charge of this follow-up.
“A tremendous hope” in patients
While Moderna and BioNTech have also embarked on the race for therapeutic vaccines against cancer, and on the strength of the first results obtained, Transgene announces the launch this year of “a phase 2 clinical study”, including “more patients”.
For now, there is no medicine to prevent cancer relapses. And on the side of the patients and their relatives, the expectation is immense. “This vaccine raises tremendous hope,” explains Sabrina Le Bars, co-founder of Corasso Association which supports people affected by cancer, in particular “rare” cancer of the head and neck, which are characterized by a large number of mutations and respond less well than others to immunotherapy for the moment. She went through this ordeal in 2010, when she was 29 and six months pregnant. She knows all about the difficulties in rebuilding herself but also the stress generated by the anxiety of recurrence. “You have this sword of Damocles above your head, she confides, the one that always makes you wonder if we will be there for the next Christmas, if we will see the first steps of his son or if we will be able to support her daughter when she passes the bac”. So, “to lighten the weight of this sword”, for her, it is simply unexpected.