Cancer Vaccines Targeting Common Tumor Markers Often Fail to Work

BioNTech's HPV16 mRNA vaccine BNT113 failed to significantly delay progression of head and neck cancer in a phase II/III trial.

• The vaccine generated T cells effectively but did not lead to improved patient outcomes.
• There is an ongoing discussion about the need to test these vaccines in more suitable patient populations.
• Success may depend on assessing overall survival rather than just tumor progression.
• This outcome adds to a series of challenges faced by off-the-shelf, shared-antigen cancer vaccines.

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