Groundbreaking ‘super vaccine’ could stop cancer from spreading entirely

A groundbreaking “super” vaccine could stop cancer growing and spreading entirely.

Researchers say they have developed a novel “nanoparticle-based” jab that can prevent melanoma, pancreatic and triple-negative breast cancer in mice.

The study showed up to 88 per cent of the vaccinated mice remained tumour-free, depending on the type of cancer – while the disease’s spread was reduced and even completely stopped in some cases.

The new research demonstrates not only that the drug can shrink and clear cancer tumours in the rodents, but also that it can work preventively. The experimental drug has not yet been trialled on humans.

Prabhani Atukorale, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which led the study, said: “By engineering these nanoparticles to activate the immune system via multi-pathway activation that combines with cancer-specific antigens, we can prevent tumour growth with remarkable survival rates.”

Vaccines generally work by delivering an antigen, the piece of the disease-causing pathogen, such as cancer cells, and an adjuvant, a substance that helps the immune system recognise the antigen and eliminate it.

To overcome difficulties faced in finding suitable adjuvants in cancer treatment, the researchers at UMass Amherst said they developed a lipid nanoparticle-based “super adjuvant”, which delivers two different adjuvants.

Three weeks after they were “super” vaccinated, the mice were exposed to melanoma cells, with 80 per cent of them remaining tumour-free, while none of those given traditional jabs survived for longer than 35 days, according to the findings.

The jab was also shown to protect against the spread of cancer to the lungs. “Metastases across the board is the highest hurdle for cancer,” said Ms Atukorale, who is co-author of the paper. “The vast majority of tumour mortality is still due to metastases, and it almost trumps us working in difficult-to-reach cancers, such as melanoma and pancreatic cancer.” But in the trial, none of the “super” vaccinated mice developed lung tumours, while all of the other mice did.

However, the researchers then conducted a second test. In the first part of the study, antigens that matched the type of cancer were developed and used, but in the second, they used killed cancer cells taken directly from the tumour mass, called tumour lysate.

After the mice were “super” vaccinated with the nanoparticle lysate jab, they were exposed to various types of cancer cells, and the results were even more impressive.

The tumour rejection rates were 88 per cent for pancreatic cancer, 75 per cent for breast cancer, and 69 per cent for melanoma, with all remaining tumour-free when the researchers tested if the disease would spread.

“The tumour-specific T-cell responses that we are able to generate – that is really the key behind the survival benefit,” said Griffin Kane, postdoctoral research associate at UMass Amherst and co-author of the paper.

The researchers, whose study was published in Cell Reports Medicine last week, said that their design “offers a platform approach that could be used across multiple cancer types”.