Boston cancer researchers create vaccine to kill and prevent brain cancer glioblastoma

Update of 1/7/2023: Here is another article on this subject Killing cancer with cancer Scientists develop cell therapy engineered to kill and prevent brain cancer in advanced mouse model

Good news! Cancer is history (soon)!

"... scientists in groundbreaking research have used a new way to turn cancer cells into potent, anti-cancer agents. ...

researchers created a cancer vaccine to simultaneously kill and prevent the deadly brain cancer glioblastoma. The team developed a new cell therapy approach to eliminate established tumors and induce long-term immunity — training the immune system so that it can prevent cancer from recurring.

“I’m a big believer that the cure for these tough cancers might be in the cancer itself, that we can use cancer against cancer,” ...
The researchers tested their dual-action, cancer-killing vaccine in an advanced mouse model of glioblastoma, with promising results. ...
The researchers will soon be asking the FDA for approval for a Phase 1 trial. That would be for about 20 patients in the Boston area. ..."

"Turning tumors into turncoats

Inactivated tumor cells have been previously investigated for their anti-cancer ability and have only shown limited clinical benefit. To overcome this, Chen et al. have engineered living tumor cells to secrete interferon beta (IFNB) and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) to both target tumors and alter the tumor microenvironments. These engineered therapeutic tumor cells (ThTCs) induced improved survival and long-term immunity in glioblastoma humanized mice. In addition, Chen et al. incorporated a double kill-switch to prevent secondary tumor initiation to provide an effective and safe therapy that warrants further investigation."

From the abstract:

"The administration of inactivated tumor cells is known to induce a potent antitumor immune response; however, the efficacy of such an approach is limited by its inability to kill tumor cells before inducing the immune responses. Unlike inactivated tumor cells, living tumor cells have the ability to track and target tumors. Here, we developed a bifunctional whole cancer cell–based therapeutic with direct tumor killing and immunostimulatory roles. We repurposed the tumor cells from interferon-β (IFN-β) sensitive to resistant using CRISPR-Cas9 by knocking out the IFN-β–specific receptor and subsequently engineered them to release immunomodulatory agents IFN-β and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. These engineered therapeutic tumor cells (ThTCs) eliminated established glioblastoma tumors in mice by inducing caspase-mediated cancer cell apoptosis, down-regulating cancer-associated fibroblast-expressed platelet-derived growth factor receptor β, and activating antitumor immune cell trafficking and antigen-specific T cell activation signaling. This mechanism-based efficacy of ThTCs translated into a survival benefit and long-term immunity in primary, recurrent, and metastatic cancer models in immunocompetent and humanized mice. The incorporation of a double kill-switch comprising herpes simplex virus–1 thymidine kinase and rapamycin-activated caspase 9 in ThTCs ensured the safety of our approach. Arming naturally neoantigen-rich tumor cells with bifunctional therapeutics represents a promising cell-based immunotherapy for solid tumors and establishes a road map toward clinical translation."

Boston cancer researchers create vaccine to kill and prevent brain cancer glioblastoma

Scientists Develop a Cancer Vaccine to Simultaneously Kill and Prevent Brain Cancer Dual-action cell therapy engineered to eliminate established tumors and train the immune system to eradicate primary tumor and prevent cancer’s recurrence

Bifunctional cancer cell–based vaccine concomitantly drives direct tumor killing and antitumor immunity (no public access)