A father of five in Merseyside has become the first patient in the UK to receive a vaccine for head and neck cancer.
Graham Booth, 54, received the jab which is designed to stop his recurring cancer from returning.
the West Kirby resident was first diagnosed with cancer in 2011 and has fought to keep it as bay for over a decade – including facial surgery, reconstruction and radiotherapy.
Mr Booth now faces a year-long course of immunotherapy injections, a trailblazing new effort to keep him cancer-free.
Professor Christian Ottensmeier, a consultant medical oncologist at The Clatterbridge Cancer Center and professor of immuno-oncology at the University of Liverpool, said: “It is a really exciting day in this important and potentially game-changing research.”
“To have reached the stage of a patient receiving this treatment that only a few years ago was thought of as science fiction, is truly amazing.”
Ottensmeier also commented that more patients are set to join the trial and would be offered “individualised’ treatments.
These have the potential to prove hugely beneficial in increasing the team’s knowledge of how personalized therapies could significantly improve survival rates and reduce side effects.
What is the cancer vaccine?
The treatment is part of a clinical research study by biotechnology company Transgene and works in a similar way to a normal vaccine.
HPV-negative squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck are notoriously hard to treat and commonly reoccur.
The new jab uses the patient’s immune system to fight potential cancer, mimicking the faulty cell that could cause their cancer to grow.
This then trains the individual’s immune system to identify, attack and kill any cancer cells the body creates.
Each of these treatment courses will be specifically tailored to patients, with the hope it greatly lowers the re-occurrence rate.
“It is wonderful that we have been able to move from the theoretical stage of this research into creating a treatment for real people. We have all waited so long for this day to come,” Ottensmeier said.