Colon Cancer Vaccine Gets One Step Closer to Reality

Since the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) changed its recommendation for when Americans at average risk of colon cancer should begin getting screened from age 50 to 45, earlier detection is on the rise.

However, in the U.S., colon cancer remains the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death, according to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. Perhaps even more troubling is the fact that 10 percent of these colon cancer cases are being diagnosed in Americans under age 50, with that number steadily rising about two percent each year.

But new results from a clinical trial offer more than just a glimmer of hope in the fight against colorectal cancer. Researchers from the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center published findings that an “off-the-shelf” cancer vaccine showed “encouraging early results in patients with pancreatic and colorectal cancer, two of the most difficult-to-treat malignancies,” states a press release.

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How would a colon cancer vaccine work?

These final trial results were published in the journal Nature Medicine and showed how the vaccine, called ELI-002 2P, can stimulate the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells.

The vaccine targets tumors driven by KRAS gene mutations. According to MD Anderson Cancer Center, “KRAS mutations are present in approximately 25 percent of tumors, making them one of the most common gene mutations linked to cancer.” They are responsible for about 50 percent of colorectal cancers and 90 percent of pancreatic cancers.

“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 study author Zev Wainberg, MD, professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and researcher in 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.”

To arrive at their findings, Wainberg and his team analyzed the health data of 20 patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (which accounts for over 80 percent of pancreatic cancers) and five patients with colorectal cancer, all of whom “had undergone surgery and showed signs of minimal residual disease, or traces of cancer DNA in the blood that often signal relapse,” notes the press release. After a 20-month follow-up, the researchers found that:

• 21 out of 25 patients 21 generated KRAS-specific T cells (immune cells), many of which persisted over time
• In 3 pancreatic and 3 colorectal cancer patients, the biomarkers associated with the tumor were completely cleared
• Patients with higher T-cell responses had a longer relapse-free survival compared to those with lower T-cell responses
• 17 patients developed immune responses to additional tumor-associated mutations, suggesting potential for broader anti-tumor activity

The other important distinction about the ELI-002 2P vaccine is that it would be “off-the-shelf,” meaning it functions in a standardized way, as opposed to many other cancer treatments that need to be personalized for each patient.

“Targeting KRAS has long been considered one of the difficult challenges in cancer therapy,” Wainberg added. “This study shows that the ELI-002 2P vaccine can safely and effectively train the immune system to recognize and fight cancer-driving mutations. It offers a promising approach to generating precise and durable immune responses without the complexity or cost of fully personalized vaccines.”

RELATED: Doctors Say This Cheap Drug May Be a “Game Changer” for Preventing Colon Cancer.

Another cancer vaccine is in the works.

A new mRNA vaccine (the same technology behind the COVID vaccine) has also shown very early positive results in treating all tumor types.

“By pairing an mRNA-style vaccine with traditional cancer immunotherapy drugs known as immune checkpoint inhibitors, [researchers] were able to generate a tumor-fighting response in the rodents, suggesting that the technology could be used to boost the body’s immune system to protect against cancer,” Best Life explained of the study.

The next phase for this vaccine is a human trial.