Pancreatic cancer vaccine that could delay onset of disease, and extend lives of sufferers, developed by UK, Chinese researchers

Scientists show ‘strong proof of concept’ for developing human pancreatic cancer vaccine after testing one on mice with disease that doubled their survival time

Because the personalised vaccine would use patient’s own cells to create antigens, it could be tailored to work on other cancers

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Researchers have developed a vaccine that doubles the survival time of mice with pancreatic cancer. The personalised vaccine could delay the onset of the disease in high-risk individuals, and could be used against other cancers, they say. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 5:00pm, 19 Feb 2020Updated: 6:30pm, 20 Feb 2020

Researchers in China and Britain have jointly developed a personalised vaccine system with the potential to delay the onset of pancreatic cancer.

The scientists at Zhengzhou University in China, Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Queen Mary University of London, joined forces on the study, tested on mice, that provides “strong proof of concept” for the development of a vaccine in individuals at high risk of developing pancreatic cancer. Results suggest it could also slow tumour growth in patients already affected by the disease.

The research was published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Researchers created a vaccine system that doubled the survival time of mice with pancreatic cancer. The system could potentially be personalised for the individual receiving it and tailored to work against other types of cancer.

Pancreatic cancer. Illustration: Shutterstock

Although vaccines exist for some cancers caused by known pathogens, such as the human papilloma virus in cervical cancer, vaccination against non-viral cancers such as pancreatic cancer has remained a challenge.