First UK Lung Cancer Patient receives mRNA vaccine BNT116

BNT116 and LungVax are nucleic acid lung cancer vaccine candidates – the former is based on mRNA technology similar to “COVID-19 mRNA vaccines” such as BNT162b2 of Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s mRNA-1273 while the LungVax vaccine is similar to Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The same technology is being employed to develop immunotherapy and preventive vaccines against lung cancer as well. Now, a lung cancer patient has received the first BNT116 mRNA vaccine in the clinical trial to study immunotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) at UCL Hospital in London.

A lung cancer patient in the UK has received investigational mRNA vaccine for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in a clinical trial.

The vaccine candidate is known as BNT116 and is manufactured by BioNTech, the German biotech firm. It is based on mRNA technology that was utilised during the pandemic for production of “COVID-19 mRNA vaccines” such as BNT162b2 of Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s mRNA-1273.

The investigational vaccine BNT116, like other mRNA-based vaccines and therapeutics, uses coded messenger RNA which expresses antigens (the common tumour markers in this case) in the body that trigger immune response and fight against cancer cells. In this case, the BNT116 vaccine candidate is providing immunotherapy to the patient. Unlike chemotherapy, which targets both cancerous and healthy cells, the immune response by this investigational vaccine targets only cancerous cells.

The trial aims to enrol patients at different stages of non-small cell lung cancer NSCLC to study if BNT116 is safe and well tolerated when administered as monotherapy or in combination with other established treatments to gauge any synergistic effect.

Another nucleic acid-based vaccine being developed in the UK is LungVax vaccine, or more precisely, ChAdOx2-lungvax-NYESO vaccine. This is for patients at risk of new or recurrent non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This contains a strand of DNA coding for cancer cell marker and works on the same principle as Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The ChAdOx2 (Chimpanzee Adenovirus Oxford 1) uses genetically engineered adenovirus as a vector to carry gene of cancer cell markers (MAGE-A3 and NYESO) which are expressed in the human cells that act as antigens for active immunity development against cancer.

The clinical trial of LungVax vaccine (ChAdOx2-lungvax-NYESO) will assess whether its administration is better prevents non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) than “no vaccine”.

Lung cancer cells differ from normal lung cells in having neoantigens on their cell surfaces which form due cancer-causing mutations within the cell’s DNA.The BNT116 and LungVax vaccines express the neoantigens in the body which prime the immune system to recognise the neoantigens as non-self thereby triggering immune response to neutralise lung cancer cells.

About 1.6 million people dies of lung cancer annually. It is a major factor in cancer-related mortality worldwide. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 85% of all lung cancer cases. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy have limited efficacy in improving survival rates hence the need for new approaches of treatment oand prevention of lung cancer. Recently, mRNA technology and DNA based vaccines proved their worth in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The same technology is being employed to develop immunotherapy and preventive vaccines against lung cancer as well. High hopes are attached to the clinical trials of BNT116 and LungVax lung cancer vaccines.

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References:

UCLH News – First UK patient receives innovative lung cancer vaccine. Published 23 August 2024. Available at https://www.uclh.nhs.uk/news/first-uk-patient-receives-innovative-lung-cancer-vaccine

University of Oxford news – New funding for development of world’s first lung cancer vaccine. Published 22 March 2024. Available at https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2024-03-22-new-funding-development-worlds-first-lung-cancer-vaccine & https://www.ndm.ox.ac.uk/news/developing-the-worlds-first-lung-cancer-vaccine

University of Oxford. LungVax. Available at https://www.oncology.ox.ac.uk/clinical-trials/oncology-clinical-trials-office-octo/prospective-trials/lungvax & https://www.hra.nhs.uk/planning-and-improving-research/application-summaries/research-summaries/phase-iiia-trial-of-chadox1-mva-vaccines-against-mage-a3-ny-eso-1/

Wang, X., Niu, Y. & Bian, F. The progress of tumor vaccines clinical trials in non-small cell lung cancer. Clin Transl Oncol (2024). Published 23 August 2024. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-024-03678-z

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