Dr. Nora Disis, Dr. Kiran Dhillon, and Kristen Dahlgren present at the latest National Vaccine Advisory Committee Meeting.
“I hope that we all in this room can envision a future that's cancer-free,” says Cancer Vaccine Institute Executive Director Dr. Kiran Dhillon. “[A future] largely in part to what vaccines can do.”
Cancer Vaccine Institute Founder and Director Dr. Nora Disis and Dr. Kiran Dhillon were speakers at the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) Meeting, organized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Joined by Kristen Dahlgren of the Cancer Vaccine Coalition, Dr. Disis and Dr. Dhillon presented the latest work and advancements in cancer vaccines at the CVI and other institutions.
“We’re at a tipping point for cancer vaccines,” Dr. Disis said. Cancer vaccines are one of the most rapidly growing clinical trials today, she said, adding that the scientific community has advanced its understanding of cancer immunology to the extent of creating precision vaccines for particular cancers.
“It seems like you can't open a newspaper these days without reading about a successful cancer vaccine trial that's showing promise,” Dr. Disis said. “This really is coming on the tail end of an explosion in cancer vaccine research [over the last decade], and the United States is leading this explosion.”
Dr. Nora Disis attended the NVAC meeting remotely and presented the advancements in cancer vaccine research.
The Cancer Vaccines Institute has campaigns in lung, breast, colon, prostate, ovarian, and bladder cancers and is working to create cancer vaccines for all clinical scenarios: prevention of cancer recurrence, treatment of cancer, and prevention and interception of cancer onset.
Dr. Disis shared the remarkable results of CVI’s early clinical trials in preventing HER2+ breast cancer recurrence. The cancer vaccine has been shown to be safe, with few side effects, and 75–85% of advanced-stage patients were still alive 10 years after vaccination. The average survival rate for patients receiving currently available chemotherapies is only 50% at just 4.5 years post-treatment.
Dr. Kiran Dhillon (left) and Kristen Dahlgren (right) present at the NVAC meeting, hosted at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Dhillon also highlighted CVI’s prevention vaccine for ovarian cancer. There's a precancerous lesion that can form in the fallopian tubes called serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma (STIC). It is believed to be the origin of many ovarian cancers, so the CVI is developing a vaccine that specifically targets STIC in the hopes of preventing ovarian cancer especially in people at high risk for the disease.
“I’ve heard this described as the most hopeful time in the history of cancer,” said Kristen Dahlgren, founder of the Cancer Vaccine Coalition. As a cancer survivor, Dahlgren spoke of life-altering procedures and side effects of current cancer treatments like chemotherapy.
“Treatment can be devastating, and I will never feel again my body as my own,” Dahlgren said. “We do see life-saving treatments for cancer, but we can do better.”
Driven to assemble a “COVID-style push” in accelerating cancer vaccine development, Dahlgren founded the Cancer Vaccine Coalition and rallied the nation’s top scientists, including Dr. Disis and the CVI team.
“If we all come together, it's really possible to see vaccines to market by 2030,” Dahlgren said.
Watch and listen to the full session here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgFs3xcwdOs&ab_channel=U.S.DepartmentofHealthandHumanServices
The NVAC meeting was hosted at The Hubert H. Humphrey Building, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services headquarters.
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