The phase 1 trial results, published Feb. 19 in Nature, evaluated the personalized mRNA neoantigen vaccine autogene cevumeran in combination with surgery, immunotherapy drug atezolizumab and chemotherapy in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
At a 3.2-year median follow up, the eight patients who had developed T cell responses from the vaccine had not reached their median recurrence-free survival. In comparison, the eight patients who did not develop the immune responses saw their cancer return after a median of 13.4 months. The vaccine-induced CD8+ T cells that help fight cancer were found to have long lifespans, with some remaining active three years following vaccination.
