The Conservative Cave
Current Events => General Discussion => Topic started by: SVPete on September 26, 2026, 11:42:38 AM
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Pancreatic Cancer Disappears in Mice After New mRNA Immunotherapy
https://scitechdaily.com/pancreatic-cancer-disappears-in-mice-after-new-mrna-immunotherapy/ (https://scitechdaily.com/pancreatic-cancer-disappears-in-mice-after-new-mrna-immunotherapy/)
Researchers at UMass Chan Medical School developed an experimental treatment for pancreatic cancer that uses a cocktail of messenger RNAs (mRNA) to activate immune defenses, break through the protective tissue surrounding tumors, and help immune cells recognize cancer cells as threats. Inspired by work at the school’s RNA Therapeutics Institute and advances in COVID vaccines, the approach combines several immune signals and tumor-associated antigens in a single formulation.
The study, published in Nature Communications, combined mRNAs encoding five immune cytokines with three tumor-associated antigens in one injectable treatment. Approximately 50 percent of mice with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma experienced complete tumor regression and remained disease-free for a year, including after therapy was discontinued.
“It’s unheard of to get a response like this in these models of pancreatic cancer,” said Dr. Parikh, a recent PhD graduate from the Ruscetti Lab. “There have been a lot of drugs tried in the lab that have had good initial responses in mice, but ultimately the cancer always comes back. This is the only study I’ve seen that has achieved durable tumor protection.”
1. This was in mice, so possible human trials, if any, will span years and are in the future. The prospect of success is somewhere between uncertain and unlikely, being realistic.
2. If there are human trials and if the stage 2 trial (safety and efficacy) is successful, during stage 3 there may be some compassionate use permitted during but outside of that trial.
3. The current post-diagnosis survival rate for pancreatic cancer is 14% - 1 in 7 - who probably are mostly (almost all?) those whose pancreatic cancer was detected incidentally by tests for other conditions. IF trials of this treatment are successful this will bring a possibly great measure of hope to people who have had little or none. IF. That is my second-hand horse in this race. I lost a middle-aged uncle to pancreatic cancer, 2 years of wasting away and much pain in his final days.
4. As I've pointed out for some 5 years, I do not buy the bogey-mRNA Chicken-Littling. If The Vaccine were as deadly as anti-Covid vaxxers claim, there would be hundreds of thousands or several million dead in the US who, IRL, are not, and the US economy would be devastated by deaths by "Vaccine Injury". Borrowing from the late Clara Peller, anti-Covid-vaxxers' burger has no beef.