Russia has made a breakthrough in the fight against cancer. The first patient has received a domestic personalized cancer vaccine. This is a drug that is created not "in general" for the disease, but for a specific person. Details were revealed at the National Medical Research Center of Radiology of the Ministry of Health of Russia.
The first patient was a 60-year-old resident of the Kursk region diagnosed with skin melanoma. He is currently undergoing immunotherapy.
Despite the ongoing treatment, there remains a high risk of further progression, and standard options will be extremely limited. In these circumstances, the use of a personalized mRNA vaccine is being considered as a means of controlling the disease.
The drug is called "Neoonkovak." It was first used at the National Medical Research Center of Radiology of the Ministry of Health of Russia as part of clinical practice.
The Ministry of Health clarified that the vaccine is administered according to a phased scheme. First, on the 1st, 8th, and 15th days with dose escalation. Then, once every 21 days. A total of up to 10 injections are planned.
The drug is prepared individually. The final stage takes place in the GMP laboratory of the National Medical Research Center of Radiology of the Ministry of Health of Russia right before administration.
Andrey Kaprin, General Director of the National Medical Research Center of Radiology of the Ministry of Health of Russia and Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, called the use of an mRNA vaccine created for a specific patient a fundamentally different approach: the task is not just to treat the disease, but to "train" the immune system to recognize and destroy precisely those cells that pose a threat.
Andrey Kaprin also noted that thanks to state support, it was possible to form a regulatory model that allows such technologies to reach the patient as quickly as possible. He added that if the drug is successfully "launched" for the treatment of skin melanoma, specialists will consider the possibility of expanding the indications for the use of such vaccines.
Denis Logunov, Director of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Ministry of Health of Russia and Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, stated that when developing the vaccine, scientists tried to put the best of what they have into it.
According to him, the drug uses the best genetic constructs, the best genetic elements, as well as the best software solutions. He noted that the Gamaleya Center has many years of experience in the production of various vaccine preparations, and now a large production complex for the production of mRNA vaccines—not only oncological but also anti-infectious—has already been built on the territory of the center.
