Jim Furneaux, 79, was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma in 2021 after a scan showed the cancer was in his lungs.
Even though stage 4 melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer, Furneaux is optimistic because his doctors are using a new weapon to fight his disease: a personalized cancer treatment specifically formulated to attack his specific cancer cells vaccine.
“I was really fascinated by the technology,” said Finau, who is from Newburyport, Massachusetts. “You have a weapon against your known enemy. It goes right into your cells and kills them.”
The vaccine, part of a clinical trial at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, is one of dozens being developed and tested across the county to fight different types of cancer.
More than just prevention: Vaccines may help cancer treatments
When most people think of vaccines, they first think of vaccines that prevent the development of a disease, such as the measles vaccine or the flu shot. There are already two preventive cancer vaccines: the HPV vaccine, which targets the virus associated with cervical cancer, and the hepatitis B vaccine, which helps prevent liver cancer caused by hepatitis B infection.
But researchers are also studying vaccines as a way to treat cancer or prevent it from coming back. Just as vaccines train the body’s immune system to recognize and attack viruses or other foreign invaders, scientists have found a way to teach it to do the same to cancer cells. This is a big deal because tumor cells originate from human cells, which makes it difficult for the body to tell the good guys from the bad ones.
After decades of frustration, researchers say the idea is reaching a watershed moment. Scientists have discovered new ways to target certain proteins, called antigens, on the surface of tumor cells, and some experts predict that at least some cancer vaccines will be commercially available within the next five to 10 years.
“It’s exciting because people in the field have been thinking about this problem since the 1980s, but no one has been able to pull it off,” said Patrick Ott, clinical director of the Melanoma Disease Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. said the doctor.
One thing to note, however: The cancer vaccines in development are not mass-produced for everyone like COVID-19 vaccines or flu shots. Instead, they are formulated for a specific patient or group of patients—whether those who have been diagnosed with cancer, cancer survivors or those with a high genetic risk.
A vaccine tailored for one patient at a time
The cancer vaccines that are getting the most attention these days are personalized vaccines, like the one Furneaux received. They are created for a specific person based on genetic mutations in the tumor cells.
“Each patient has a different tumor and different mutations,” Ott said. To create a personalized vaccine, these mutations are programmed into a vaccine made specifically for that person. The entire process can take six to eight weeks, and experts say it can be costly.