New vaccine approach shows promise for advanced kidney cancer

Cancer vaccines are uniquely capable of enhancing the number and quality of tumor-specific T cells and steering them to the tumor, potentially leading to the destruction of tumor cells. Image credit – Patrick Ott, MD, PhD laboratory

CANCER DIGEST – Feb. 9, 2025 – A 100 percent of patients with a certain type of kidney cancer were cancer-free nearly four years after receiving treatment with new anti-cancer vaccine, researchers from the Dana Farber Cancer Research Institute reported.

The early stage clinical trial involved 9 patients with stage 3 or 4 clear cell renal cell carcinoma. After surgery to remove the tumor, each patient received a personalized cancer vaccine, meaning the vaccine is made with specific molecular features from the patient’s own tumor. The tiny fragments, called neoantigens, taken from the tumor, are specific to the cancer and do not exist in any other cells. The result is that the vaccine stimulates the patient’s immune system to attack the cancer a not any other cells in the body.

“Patients with stage 3 or 4 kidney cancer are at high risk of recurrence,” co-senior study author Toni Choueiri, MD, said in a press release. “The tools we have to lower that risk are not perfect and we are relentlessly looking for more.”

The nine patients have been followed for a median of 40.2 months, and so far none of them have had their cancer recur. Five of the patients also received an immunotherapy drug called ipilimumab (Nervy®). The results were reported in the Feb. 5, 2025 journal Nature.

The current standard therapy for stage 3 or 4 renal cell carcinoma is to surgically remove the tumor, followed by immunotherapy using pembrolizumab (Keytruda®). While the pembrolizumab induces an immune response that has been effective in preventing recurrence in some patients, about two-thirds of patients have the cancer recur. When that happens, patients are left few treatment options. 

In this vaccine approach, the researchers select molecular fragments of tissue taken from the tumor that are most likely to trigger an immune response. The vaccine is then manufactured and given to the patient in a series of doses, followed by two booster shots.

The goal is to guide the immune system to more specifically attack the cancer while reducing effects on normal tissues. The approach is suited to kidney cancer because it generally has fewer mutations, and therefore fewer targets to isolate from the tumor to add to the vaccine.

“This approach is truly distinct from (other) vaccine attempts in kidney cancer,” co-senior author David Braun, MD, PhD, said in a press release. “We pick targets that are unique to the cancer and different from any normal part of the body, so the immune system can be effectively 'steered' towards the cancer in a very specific way.”

In the study the researchers found that this approach generated an immune response within three weeks and the number of vaccine-induced T cells increased 166-fold, which remained at high levels in the body for up to three years. T cells are the immune cells most responsible for attacking abnormal cells, such as cancer.

So far the vaccines have shown mild side effects with reactions at the injection site, with some patients experiencing flu-like symptoms. No high-grade side effects were reported. Larger clinical trials will be organized to further test the effectiveness of this new vaccine approach,

Sources: Dana Farber Cancer Research Center press release, and the journal Nature.