OXFORD, UK — Studies in the United States as well as the United Kingdom are showing promise in the field of cancer preventatives - including vaccines aimed at stopping the development of cancer tissues.
A team of researchers at the University of Oxford secured £600,000 ($787,500 USD) in funding from Cancer Research UK to help develop a vaccine specifically targeted at ovarian cancer, which they say is the sixth most common form of cancer in women.
Called "OvarianVax," their vaccine "teaches the immune system to recognize and attack the earliest stages of ovarian cancer," the university said. Their researchers will use the grant money to determine which proteins on early-stage cancer cells can be easily recognized by the human immune system and how effectively their vaccine can kill "mini-models" of ovarian cancer.
Previous Oxford research showed that immune cells in ovarian cancer patients were able to "remember" the tumor. From there, the team hopes they can build upon that knowledge.
'Teaching the immune system to recognize the very early signs of cancer is a tough challenge," said Oxford Professor Ahmed Ahmed. "'OvarianVax' could offer the solution to prevent cancer, firstly in women at high risk but also more widely if trials prove successful."
American researchers at the Mayo Clinic have also been developing a potential vaccine for ovarian cancer. Their approach is to combine a vaccine with an immunotherapy regimen in what they call "a one-two punch" to stop progression of the disease in ovarian cancer patients.
In the Mayo study, researchers took blood samples from women with advanced ovarian cancer which returned after standard surgery plus chemotherapy. White blood cells from the samples are targeted, bioengineered to become dendritic cells (cells that help the body fight off pathogens by providing antigens to other immune cells), and then returned to the patient.
These dendritic cells, Mayo says, "act as crusaders that march through the body, triggering the immune system to recognize and fight cancer."
"We're building on an earlier phase 1 clinical trial that showed promising results in terms of survival after the dendritic cell-based vaccine," said oncologist Matthew Block, M.D., Ph.D., co-principal investigator of the Mayo Clinic study in 2023. "Of the 18 evaluable patients in the phase 1 study, 11 had cancer return, but seven of them — 40 % — have been cancer-free for almost 10 years.
Dr. Block said their vaccine is intended to be administered alongside an immunotherapy drug to identify and kill tumors that don't respond to cell therapy alone.
The American Cancer Society says about 19,680 women get a new diagnosis of ovarian cancer each year. Annually, about 12,700 women die from the disease.