Advanced Pancreatic Cancer Patient Benefit From Personalized Neoantigen Nanovaccine Based Immunotherapy: A Case Report

Personal neoantigen vaccines are considered to be effective methods for inducing, amplifying and diversifying antitumor T cell responses. We recently conducted a clinical study that combined neoantigen nanovaccine with anti-PD-1 antibody. Here, we reported a case with a clear beneficial outcome from this treatment. We established a process that includes comprehensive identification of individual mutations, computational prediction of new epitopes, and design and manufacture of unique nanovaccines for this patient. Nanovaccine started after a relapse in third-line treatment. We assessed the patient's clinical outcome and circulating immune response. In this advanced pancreatic cancer patient, the OS associated with the vaccine treatment was 10.5 months. A peptide-specific T-cell response against 9 of the 12 vaccine peptides could be detected sequentially. Robust neoantigen-specific T cell responses were also detected by IFN-γ ELISPOT and intracellular cytokine staining. In conclusion, sustained functional neoantigen-specific T cell therapy combined with immune checkpoint targeting may be well suited to help control progressive metastatic pancreatic cancer.