Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal forms of cancer. Only 12% of those diagnosed with it survive.
Part of the problem is that it is typically only diagnosed at a relatively late stage. This is due to its relatively non-specific symptoms, including digestive problems, abdominal pain and weight loss.
Yet a study published earlier this month suggests dramatically improved outcomes are possible for pancreatic cancer patients.
The key innovation is the mRNA-based cancer “vaccine”. So-called cancer vaccines are not actually preventative. Rather, they’re a novel form of cancer therapy based on advances in mRNA vaccine technology.
They’re sometimes called “personalised vaccines”: they rely on extracting a DNA signature from the cancer cells growing in a patient’s body.
Because cancer is not an infection but an overgrowth of the body’s own cells, the immune system may not identify and eliminate the cancer before it’s too late to do so. An mRNA injection overrides this issue by instructing the body to produce the type of immune-system T-cells that it requires in order to destroy the cancer.
In the recently published research, the experiment was carried out with 16 pancreatic cancer patients. Of the 8 in the placebo group, four had died after 13 months and 7 before the end of the second year.
Of the treatment group, researchers reported that the “median survival rate” had not yet been reached at the follow-up time (3.2 years). Six of the 8 patients were still alive at 3.2 years after the commencement of treatment.
Of great promise for the field as a whole, the February study demonstrated production of T-cells with an estimated lifespan of 7.7 years. The authors state they expect some 20% of these cells to last for decades in the body.
Unfortunately, the treatment would not mean an end to chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer patients. These results were achieved with the “vaccine” in concert with chemotherapy.
It should be noted that the study was partly backed by California’s Genentech (among many others including BioNTech, Merck and Roche). Genentech’s chief scientific officer is implicated in an Alzheimer’s research scandal that led to retraction of research publications.
UK hospitals are currently testing these “vaccines” for bowel and lung cancer. Trials for treatment of many other types of cancer are already underway.
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