Off-the-shelf cancer vaccine shows promise in triggering immune system to fight off pancreatic and colorectal cancer cells in patients

A clinical trial of a new cancer vaccine has shown progress in triggering powerful and lasting immune responses in patients with pancreatic and colorectal cancer. The off-the-shelf vaccine, called ELI-002 2P, also had an impact on preventing or delaying cancer recurrence in high-risk patients.

Led in part by investigators at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, the study evaluated the safety and efficacy of a lymph node-directed vaccination that targets KRAS gene mutations, which are often associated with cancer. These mutations are found in about 25% of solid tumors and drive about 90% of pancreatic cancers and 50% of colorectal cancers.

After an extended follow-up of more than a year and a half, the researchers found that the average relapse-free survival was 16.33 months and the average overall survival was 28.94 months - both exceeding historical norms. The findings were published in Nature Medicine.

"This is an exciting advance for patients with KRAS-driven cancers, particularly pancreatic cancer, where recurrence after standard treatment is almost a given and effective therapies are limited," said first author of the study, Dr. Zev Wainberg, professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and researcher at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. "We observed that patients who developed strong immune responses to the vaccine remained disease-free and survived for much longer than expected."

Unlike some other cancer treatments that may need to be personalized for each patient based on their specific characteristics and mutations, ELI-002 2P is an "off-the-shelf" vaccine that is designed to be a standardized product that can stimulate the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells in a general way, without the need for the time-consuming and complex process of creating a unique vaccine for each patient.

Read all the details on the UCLA Health website.