An experimental vaccine for the most common form of lung cancer has shown its effectiveness in a recent clinical trial, but only if the cancer is localized. The trial's results were unveiled at a medical conference last year in Vienna, Austria.1
Lung cancer can be diagnosed in people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a disease commonly resulting in pulmonary hypertension, as well. However, the reported incidence of lung cancer in patients with IPF in the United States is fairly low at just 4.8%.2
Extending a Person's Survival Chances
The vaccine was tested in a trial of 171 people diagnosed with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common form of the cancer. "The survival rate of patients with late stage NSCLC is dismal, with median survival often reported as less than a year," wrote Charles Butts, MD, a senior medical oncologist at the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and his fellow investigators.
Butts and his team found that the vaccine gave the patients extended odds of survival. The patients, overall, survived an average of 4.4 months longer compared to a group of patients not given the vaccine in the mid-phase trial.
Further, about 60 percent of the patients who received the vaccine were still alive 2 years after the start of the study. This outcome was not expected given the poor survival rate without treatment.
Targeting a Protein Gone Awry
The vaccine works by inducing an immune response to an abnormal protein found in the surface of tumor cells, Butts and his colleagues explained. Butts says he is excited by the findings because the same abnormal protein is also found in other cancer cells, implying that the vaccine could theoretically work in the same way against other cancers.
The study was "open label", meaning both clinical staffers and patients knew whether they were given the vaccine or not. Patients were selected at random to receive the vaccine or supportive care. The patients in the vaccine group received eight weekly doses by injection, Butts' team reported. Maintenance immunizations were then followed every 6 weeks during the trial.
The only side effects were flu-like symptoms and minor injection site reactions.
Localized Cancer is the Key
Butts pointed out that the vaccine's most dramatic results were seen in patients whose disease was at stage IIIb, and localized, as opposed to later stages. In those patients, the odds of survival two years after treatment was 60%, compared to about 36.5% in those only given supportive care.
For the 88 patients receiving the vaccine, median survival was 17.4 months compared with 13 months in the group without the vaccine. Quality of life was also maintained for those who received therapy. Butts calls the results "exciting", even though they were not considered significant, given the small sample size.
Still, the researchers stress that the findings are promising considering the few other therapy options for people with non-small-cell lung cancer, which are also not very effective.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration has granted "fast-track" approval status for the drug, called L-BLP25, meaning the review process at the agency will be conducted on an expedited basis. If approved, the medication would become the first vaccine to work in lung cancer, and the first to work in such a common cancer.
1. Butts CA, Marshall E, Murray NR. A multicenter phase IIB randomized study of liposomal MUC1 vaccine for immunotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer. The 29th European Society for Medical Oncology Congress. 2004 Oct 29-Nov 4. Vienna, Austria.
2. Ma Y, Seneviratne CK, Koss M. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and malignancy. Curr Opin Pulm Med 2001 Sep;7(5):278-82.
John Martin is a long-time health journalist and an editor for Priority Healthcare. His credits include coverage of health news for the website of Fox Television's The Health Network, and articles for the New York Post and other consumer and trade publications.
