Old NID
256625
Results of a small BioNTech pancreatic cancer vaccine with 16 patients showed that half remained free of the cancer after 18 months. It's an intriguing milestone because it is a deadly cancer due to many being asymptomatic until it has spread - and 88% mortality.
The patients had a vaccine tailored to them individually, which shows the promise of using messenger RNA (mRNA) to get the patient's immune system to destroy cancer cells. If this holds up in larger trial it would mean true personalized medicine.
It needs to have a larger trial because it would be unethical to not give patients chemotherapy and another cancer drug, but this is still compelling in a disease where the 5-year survival rate is only 12%.
