Cancer vaccines and targeted therapies are beginning to offer new treatment options following surgery for patients with early stages of lung cancer, experts said at the first European Multidisciplinary Conference in Thoracic Oncology (EMCTO) in Lugano, Switzerland (1-3 May 2009).
Several research groups presented data from new and ongoing studies that showed how existing treatments might be combined with targeted therapies and new cancer vaccines. Because the benefits of vaccination would be limited to a subgroup of patients, strategies to define those patients by means of biomarkers, such as a genetic signature, were of major clinical relevance, as only those patients might be candidates for vaccination in the future. A larger, phase III, trial of the vaccine is now underway. In one presentation at the meeting, researchers described the results of a study that sought to identify which patients are likely to benefit from an immune-boosting vaccine designed to help the immune system recognise MAGE-A3, a protein that is expressed on about 30% of lung cancers. Studies have shown that the treatment can help patients avoid or delay cancer recurrence after surgery. A gene signature that might predict which patients would benefit from the treatment was reported.

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