Forget one-size-fits-all cancer treatments — personalization is the future, and it’s already showing promise.
In a groundbreaking early-phase trial, a personalized vaccine triggered a powerful immune response in nine patients with advanced kidney cancer, successfully wiping out the disease and keeping it at bay for at least three years.
“We’re very excited about these results, which show such a positive response in all nine patients with kidney cancer,” said Dr. Toni Choueiri, co-director of the Lank Center for Genitourinary Cancer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and co-senior author of the study.
Every year, more than 62,000 Americans are diagnosed with kidney cancer, making it one of the 10 most common cancers in both men and women in the United States. Most diagnoses occur in people between 65 and 74 years old, and risk increases with age.
Existing immune therapies for kidney cancer aim to “release the brakes” on the immune system, allowing it to attack cancer cells. However, they fail to direct the immune cells to the specific areas where they are needed.
As a result, experts say these therapies have proven ineffective for some patients, while others have grappled with the dangers of an overreactive immune response, including organ damage, pain and inflammation.
“The idea behind this trial was to specifically steer the immune system toward a target that is unique to the tumor,” said Dr. David Braun, a member of the Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology at Yale Cancer Center and lead author of the study.
The researchers developed personalized vaccines tailored to each patient’s unique cancer using tumor tissue removed during surgery as a blueprint.
They leveraged advanced DNA sequencing technology to identify specific molecular features — known as neoantigens — that are present in cancer cells but absent in healthy ones.
Using predictive algorithms, the team then pinpointed the neoantigens most likely to trigger a strong immune response, which were incorporated into the custom vaccines.
Administered after surgery, the shots trained the patient’s immune system to target and eliminate leftover cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue.
“We learned which specific targets in the cancer are most susceptible to immune attack and demonstrated that this approach can generate long-lasting immune responses,” Braun said. “We believe this work can form a foundation for the development of neoantigen vaccines in kidney cancer.”
While some patients reported localized reactions at the injection site and flu-like symptoms, none experienced severe side effects.
In the clinical trial, all of the patients had stage III or IV clear cell renal cell carcinoma, a particularly aggressive subtype of kidney cancer known for its potential to spread quickly if it isn’t diagnosed and treated early.
Standard treatment typically involves surgery followed by pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug that boosts the immune response and lowers the risk of recurrence. But even with this treatment, about two-thirds of patients relapse and are left with limited options.
That’s where the personalized vaccine comes in. Remarkably, all nine patients who received the vaccine remained cancer-free for at least three years after treatment — an impressive outcome that has researchers excited about the future of kidney cancer care.
“Patients with stage III or IV kidney cancer are at high risk of recurrence,” said Choueiri. “The tools we have to lower that risk are not perfect and we are relentlessly looking for more.”
This breakthrough isn’t just limited to kidney cancer. Clinical trials are also exploring personalized vaccines to boost immune responses against other cancers, including those of the liver, breast, pancreas, brain and skin.
The study, published in Nature, highlights the potential of personalized cancer vaccines, though experts caution that larger, longer trials are needed to fully confirm the safety and effectiveness of this treatment strategy.
The second phase of trials for the kidney vaccine is already underway, with researchers testing it alongside pembrolizumab in hopes of making the treatment even more effective.
