PAVE — A nanovaccine Approach for the treatment of Pancreatic Cancer

Results in brief

A nanovaccine Approach for the treatment of Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is projected to become the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths by 2030 and represents one of the deadliest cancer types, globally accounting for 4.7% of all deaths for cancer, with a median life expectancy of <1 year for PDAC patients with metastasis. This dismal prognosis can be attributed to late detection, tumour heterogeneity, intrinsic chemoresistance and failure of conventional therapeutic approaches. New approaches, such as immunotherapy still face obstacles in PDAC, as it is an inherently immune-cold tumour and uses various strategies to counteract the effectiveness of immunotherapy, such as a dense stroma that hinders the infiltration of T-cells into the tumour microenvironment (TME), promotes chemoresistance and immune escape, and produces cytokines that support the growth and survival of the tumour cells. Additionally, the translation of immunotherapy into clinical applications is impeded by the inadequacy of effective pre-clinical models. Therefore, the overall aim of PAVE was to establish new strategies and approaches for nanoparticle (NP)-based cancer vaccines, in conjunction with modulation of the TME, for the treatment of PDAC. Our goals were to achieve long-term immune suppression of PDAC, using multicomponent nanovaccines, to produce adequate preclinical models and assays, which will be more relevant for testing these new immunological approaches and to track vaccine biodistribution in vivo. This approach included the establishment of PDAC porcine models that replicate the human immune system, allowing preclinical testing of our innovative NP-based vaccines with multiple, rather than single, encapsulated immunomodulating components. The collaboration between researchers, developers, regulators, and clinicians as well as between industry and academia allowed the development of novel nanovaccine-based immunotherapies with the high promise to prolong survival and quality-of-life of PDAC patients.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

A Nanovaccine Approach For The Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer By Multicomponent Immuno-Modulation: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in men and women and still fatal in over 90% of patients. It is characterised by its extremely aggressive nature where it is also responsible for the highest mortality rate compared to other major cancers, resulting in excess of 250,000 deaths worldwide per annum. Current state-of-art therapies for advanced PDAC including chemo- and/or radiotherapy, despite extensive efforts, have met with only limited success.Surgery is only applicable for those with early stages of the disease, or to relieve symptoms, if the cancer is blocking the bile duct or the bowel. There are two major reasons for the resistance of PDAC to conventional therapy. Firstly, PDAC has a very defining hallmark, where an abundance of stromal content is present in the tumour microenvironment (TME) to form a physical and biochemical barrier. Secondly, during progression of the disease, the body's immune system is hijacked to support the proliferation of the cancer. New approaches, such as immunotherapy, are therefore needed where it has already shown promise in overcoming many aspects of this resistance. Immunotherapy has the potential to treat minimal residual disease after pancreatic resection (surgery) as well as for metastatic and non-resectable PDAC. Our objective for this projectis to bring together a multidisciplinary and intersectoral group to develop novel vaccine approaches, including use of multiple immunomodulating components.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV · MUNCHENCoordinatorGermany
ACADEMISCH ZIEKENHUIS LEIDEN · LeidenNetherlands
DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET · Kongens LyngbyDenmark
ERASMUS UNIVERSITAIR MEDISCH CENTRUM ROTTERDAM · RotterdamNetherlands
GOOD BIOMARKER SCIENCES BV · SASSENHEIMNetherlands
INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA SANTE ET DE LA RECHERCHE MEDICALE · ParisFrance
KLINIKUM DER UNIVERSITAET REGENSBURG · RegensburgGermany
PERCUROS BV · 's-Gravenhage (Den Haag)Netherlands
POLYPURE AS · OsloNorway
STATENS SERUM INSTITUT · Kobenhavn SDenmark
STIFTUNG LEIBNIZ-INSTITUT FUR IMMUNTHERAPIE · RegensburgGermany
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN · MuenchenGermany
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT · DelftNetherlands
THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM · BirminghamUnited Kingdom
UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA · BarcelonaSpain

PAVE · A nanovaccine Approach for the treatment of Pancreatic Cancer

Results in brief

A nanovaccine Approach for the treatment of Pancreatic Cancer

Project objective

Participants

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