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New cancer vaccine prolongs life
Medical expert of the article
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
The German pharmaceutical company Immatics Biotechnologies reports in the journal Nature Medicine on the successful use of the multipeptide vaccine it created, IMA901. In particular, kidney cancer patients vaccinated with IMA901 demonstrated longer survival.
In addition, the discovery of key markers that scientists believe may indicate which patients are likely to respond most positively to vaccination is reported.
Hypernephroma of the kidney is the most common type of this cancer. When it reaches the metastasis stage, the survival prognosis becomes extremely negative. Current methods of treating hypernephroma involve tumor removal, followed by the use of various forms of immunotherapy, since radiation and conventional chemotherapy have already proven their ineffectiveness. Immunotherapy comes down to the introduction of drugs that help the immune system itself identify cancer cells as something unworthy of life. The idea is good, but there is almost no progress in this area. Therefore, the news that an anti-cancer vaccine demonstrates a real ability to activate the immune system has caused a healthy stir among oncologists.
Let's make it clear right away: this vaccine is a therapeutic, not a preventive, means, i.e. it is indicated for use only in cases where cancer has already been diagnosed. The development of IMA901 became possible after the discovery of various antigens that accumulate around tumors under certain conditions as a result of the growth of malignant cells. The vaccine is composed of ten peptides that, as was previously discovered, are capable of stimulating the immune systems of those patients who express the previously noticed antibodies. All this forces the immune system to activate and begin an attack on tumor cells.
The vaccine has already passed the first two stages of clinical trials and is now participating in the most important - the third. Its introduction has significantly extended the lives of patients who voluntarily agreed to participate in the experiment. For now, the prognosis for five-year survival for a person receiving traditional treatment does not exceed 60-70%.
And one more thing. The vaccine's authors have described in detail two biomarkers they discovered, which they believe are signals for the most successful use of IMA901. However, scientists are not sure of the level of accuracy of these signals, so everything will fall into place after the end of the third stage of clinical trials.
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