Cancer vaccination: successes of the first study – oe24.at

Every year about 20 thousand people die in Austria from cancer. Is vaccination now the beginning of the end of the terrible disease? The results of a new study raise great hope: the growth of tumors can be stopped, and in some cases even reduced.

Biotechnology company Biontech presented results of the first study of its CARVac cancer vaccine on Monday. The vaccination is based on mRNA technology – meaning that by introducing a specific protein into a cell, the body can repair it itself.

The study numbers give us confidence

According to the study, 44 patients received the new vaccine at four dose levels. Only two years later, a temporary status was created.

• In 59% of people tested, tumors shrank by at least 30% with the effect of two dose levels. In almost all patients (95 percent) the cancer was stable after vaccination. So the tumor stops growing.

• With four dosage levels, the “success rate” was slightly lower. But: In at least 45% of patients, the tumors shrank by at least 30%. In addition, the cancer stabilized in at least 74% of all patients.

The reason for the low numbers is that data from 38 patients could be reliably evaluated using four dose levels and only from 13 patients with two dose levels.