For decades, researchers have worked to develop therapies that can prime the immune system to recognize and attack proteins on the surface of tumor cells. However, success has been limited due to the technological challenge of engineering therapies that provide specific enough 'training' to the immune system to identify a given patient's neoantigens. Now, investigators have evaluated an investigational, individualized neoantigen therapy (INT), containing patient-specific mRNA-encoded instructions that the immune system can use to target cancer-causing cells. Their results highlight the safety, feasibility, and therapeutic promise of the approach, which has been designated breakthrough status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to accelerate further clinical research.
