Kicking off a personalized cancer vaccine trial

Once considered unwieldy and impractical, the personalized cancer vaccine is now in the clinic — with a phase 1 trial underway in San Diego.

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego, and the La Jolla Institute of Allergy and Immunology are collaborating to treat 10 patients — including Tamara Strauss, a 59-year-old jewelry artist who has been through around 20 rounds of chemo and three abdominal surgeries in the past three years.

Notably, Strauss’s parents ushered the trial into fruition: Her parents, who are well-known philanthropists, donated $1 million to get the study off the ground, the San Diego Union-Tribune writes.

The approach in this trial is unique in that it uses computer modeling to predict which neoantigens might work in tandem with the immune system to attack an individual patient’s cancer. It’s then tested in vials of the patient’s blood to check for T cell responses — and from there, injected into the patient. The idea with this early trial is to detect some level of efficacy before it’s used in the patient.