Key Points
Nucleic acid-based Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines (TCVs), especially Messenger Ribonucleic Acid (mRNA)-based TCVs, are an exciting medical frontier, emerging from advances in genetic research, enhanced delivery systems and novel combination therapies. Fueled by the success of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines, pharmaceutical companies are now exploring this newer vaccine class for difficult-to-treat conditions such as cancer.
mRNA-based TCVs are unfolding as a potent and versatile cancer vaccination technology because of their many benefits, including the ability to target intratumoral heterogeneity, their flexible design and the adaptable manufacturing process. mRNA vaccines also have the ability to encode a full length of tumor antigens and are well-suited to a personalized vaccine approach.
Clinical studies on mRNA-based TCVs have shown robust preliminary evidence of tumor-specific immunogenicity in patients with melanoma and other cancers. However, to fully realize the potential of this platform, the area warrants further research and refinements to overcome challenges such as the mRNA vaccine’s instability, innate immunogenicity and inefficiency of in vivo delivery.
As companies race to develop vaccine candidates for the market, we summarize recent advances in the TCV space, focusing on mRNA-based TCVs. The data boom has made it imperative for pharmaceutical companies to collaborate with agile and intelligent knowledge providers to keep track of developments in this rapidly advancing field. Such research and consulting partners have become indispensable to gain a competitive edge in advancing cancer vaccine programs.