By Dr. Sushama R. Chaphalkar, PhD.Apr 18 2024Reviewed by Lily Ramsey, LLM In a recent phase I trial published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine, researchers from Belgium administered a dendritic cell vaccine targeting patient-specific neoantigens to patients with resected non-small cell lung cancer .
Adjuvant chemotherapy offers modest survival benefits and often impacts the quality of life severely, emphasizing the need for more efficacious and tolerable adjuvant therapies. Recent phase 3 trials showed that immune checkpoint blockers benefit high-risk early-stage NSCLC, improving disease-free survival, but concerns exist over their toxicity.
About the study The study recruited ten resectable NSCLC patients without specific gene mutations in stages Ia3–IVb. Tumor material and peripheral blood samples were collected for whole-exome sequencing and ribonucleic acid sequencing. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients receiving Neo-mDC treatment were analyzed for CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses against neoantigen 25-mers using interferon-gamma staining after in vitro stimulation.
Adverse events were mild and self-limiting, with no grade 3–4 AEs reported. While three patients experienced disease recurrence, three patients remained free of disease recurrence during the follow-up period.