Cancer vaccines offer new hope as patients with advanced cancer enter remission

Cancer vaccines are emerging as a potential new approach to treating the disease, with researchers testing therapies designed to train the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells. One patient, Molly Hones, entered full remission months after beginning an experimental vaccine trial for a rare form of liver cancer.
Hones, who was 31 when she learned that her fibrolamellar carcinoma had progressed to stage 4, had previously undergone surgery to remove a large tumor from her liver. After doctors determined that most chemotherapy options were unlikely to work, she decided to participate in a clinical trial for an experimental treatment. By September 2024, five months after starting the trial, she was in full remission and remains in remission, according to the report.
Unlike chemotherapy and radiation, which directly attack cancer cells and can also damage healthy tissue, therapeutic cancer vaccines are designed to stimulate the immune system so it can identify and destroy cancer cells. Researchers are studying vaccines that could help prevent cancer from returning as well as treatments for existing tumors.
Cancer vaccines can be developed as “off-the-shelf” treatments targeting characteristics shared by patients with the same cancer, or as personalized vaccines created using the genetic information from an individual patient’s tumor. Personalized vaccines remain an expensive and relatively new approach, with researchers working to make their production faster and more affordable.

Another patient featured in the report, Ari Nakata, enrolled in a cancer vaccine trial after her breast cancer spread to her back, bones, lungs and liver. She received six vaccine doses, one each month, and doctors found that 24 of 59 treatment targets had responded. She continues to receive treatment alongside a targeted chemotherapy regimen.
Despite the advances, cancer vaccines remain largely limited to clinical trials. Researchers are testing different platforms, including mRNA, DNA, viral and bacterial vectors, cells and peptides, while studying how vaccines can be combined with other cancer treatments.