Ramsay Newsroom
Hollywood Private Hospital plays leading role in cancer vaccine trial
June 07, 2023
There is new hope for melanoma sufferers with West Australian researchers playing a significant role in the trial of a unique, personalised, cancer vaccine therapy - the first of its kind in the world, which is already showing clinically significant results.
The new vaccine, mRNA-4157 uses a patient’s tumour DNA to help target their individual tumour.
The vaccine is currently being trialled at various hospitals around the world, with WA’s Hollywood Private Hospital the highest recruiting site under Cancer Clinical Trials Lead and Lead Author of the trial, Professor Adnan Khattak.
Professor Khattak, a medical oncologist, said the trial is taking a personalised approach to melanoma treatment in the hope of improving cure rates on top of what standard immunotherapy offers.
“Current treatments are more generic and work for some cases and not for others,” Professor Khattak said.
“This trial is considering a more personalised approach towards targeting an individual patient’s tumour. Essentially treating the right patient with the right drug at the right time.”
Professor Khattak said the while a cure for melanoma is still some way off, the trial results are positive.
“The trial has shown the vaccine significantly delays disease recurrence in patients with resected high-risk melanoma when added to standard-of-care therapy.
“We’ve also found this approach not only reduces the chances of melanoma relapsing locally but more importantly stops it from spreading to the distant organs.
“Taking this more personalised approach to cancer treatment we hope to be better able to treat our patients how they need to be treated, whether that’s one drug or two drugs, and hopefully also save some from side effects of therapy if they not responding well to a particular drug.”
Professor Khattak has just returned from the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s 2023 annual meeting in Chicago where he presented the results of the phase 2 trial with tens of thousands of leading international oncologists.
“This is potentially a very exciting approach that may be applicable across multiple tumour types, so was worthy of sharing with thousands of leading oncologists from around the world,” he said.
“I do a lot of clinical trials, but this unique personalised cancer vaccine therapy trial is the first of its kind to demonstrate benefit and has led to plans for a much bigger study in melanoma and also in other cancers moving forward.”
Melanoma of the skin was the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia in 2018. It is estimated that it will become the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in 2022
In 2020, melanoma of the skin was the tenth most common cause of cancer death in Australia.1
Hollywood Private Hospital participates in research in areas including breast cancer, blood disorders, cardiology, urology, mental health, oncology, palliative care, orthopaedics and nuclear medicine. Hollywood currently has 60 active clinical trials underway, for more information contact 08 9346 6571.
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