Vaccine promising for certain lung cancer patients

A cancer vaccine for non-small-cell lung cancer (the most common type) appears to be effective for patients whose cancer has not spread to other parts of the body, a Canadian researcher reported Monday at the European Society of Medical Oncology Congress.

The results come from a 17-center mid-stage trial involving 171 patients, said Dr. Charles Butts of the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton.

Earlier results indicated that, overall, patients receiving the vaccine survived an average of 4.4 months longer than those not given the vaccine. Among patients with localized disease, however, 60 percent of those on the vaccine were alive at 24 months compared with 37 percent of the comparison group, Butts said.

"That seems to be where the big improvement is," he said, adding that he hopes to test the vaccine on a larger group of patients whose disease has not spread beyond the chest.

The research was undertaken with Biomira Inc. of Edmonton, Canada, and Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany. They plan to start the phase III trial next year.

In September 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted fast-track status for the vaccine, called L-BLP25, Merck reported.

If the results are confirmed, it would be the first vaccine to work in lung cancer, and the first to work in such a commonly occurring cancer.

Butts said it would change the way lung cancer is treated. "There's no currently effective immunotherapy for lung cancer." Vaccine side effects are minimal, and include mild flu-like symptoms.

He explained that the vaccine was designed to induce an immune response to the abnormal MUC1 protein present on the surface of tumor cells.

"The other thing that really has me excited, is if this is confirmed in non-small cell lung cancer, this MUC1 protein is present on a lot of cancer cells, not just lung cancer. It's present on cancers of the breast, colon, prostate, and multiple myeloma. It has potential applications for other tumors in general."