Geneos Cancer Vaccine Shrinks Liver Tumors In Small Trial

Nearly a third of patients with advanced liver cancer who received a personalized vaccine developed by Geneos Therapeutics along with an immunotherapy drug in a small, early trial saw their tumors shrink, US researchers reported, Julie Steenhuysen reported for Reuters.

The findings, which must be confirmed in a larger trial, move the industry another step closer to effective cancer vaccines, after many past failures, and may expand the types of cancers that such therapies can treat.

The result was roughly twice the response typically seen with the immunotherapy alone, the researchers said.

Findings from the preliminary study, presented at the American Association for Cancer Research in San Diego and published in Nature Medicine, suggest that vaccines based on mutations only present in a patient's tumor may boost the immune system's ability to recognize and attack hard-to-treat cancers.

The goal was to train the immune system to attack and kill only these unique proteins, leaving healthy tissue unscathed.

The findings, which must be confirmed in a larger trial, move the industry another step closer to effective cancer vaccines, after many past failures, and may expand the types of cancers that such therapies can treat.

Partners Moderna and Merck and Co. and others have had promising results combining customized vaccines with immunotherapy to prevent skin cancer from returning in patients following surgery.

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