News & Events

Research begins patient trials of new leukaemia cancer vaccine

31 January 2011

A new cancer treatment which strengthens a patient's immune system and could enable them to fight the disease more effectively is trialling for the first time in the UK. It has been funded by the EME programme in addition to the charity Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research.

A team of researchers and health practitioners, led by Professor Christian Ottensmeier of the University of Southampton will use a new DNA vaccine to treat a selected group of volunteers who have either chronic or acute myeloid leukaemia - two forms of bone marrow and blood cancer. Previous research has suggested that the disease can be controlled by vaccinating patients against a cancer-associated gene (Wilm's Tumour gene 1), found in almost all chronic and acute leukaemias.

In this study, each participant will receive six doses of DNA vaccine over a six month period, with further booster vaccinations if the vaccine is effective. The vaccine will be administered using electroporation, a groundbreaking new method in which controlled, rapid electrical pulses create permeability in cell membranes and enable dramatically increased uptake of biological material after its injection into muscle or skin tissue. The electroporation system was developed by the US pharmaceutical company Inovio who are providing the new ELGEN-1000 automated device.

Christian Ottensmeier, Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine at the University of Southampton said; "We have already demonstrated that this new type of DNA vaccine is safe and can successfully activate the immune systems in patients with cancer of the prostate, bowel and lung. We believe it will prove to be beneficial to patients with acute and chronic myeloid leukaemia."

The team will to recruit up to 92 patients to the trial which will take place at hospitals in Southampton, London and Exeter over the next two years.

The results of the research are expected in 2015. Please visit the project page for more information.