Russian Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology’s breakthrough cancer treatment is expected to get regulatory approval by August, potentially allowing patients to begin treatment with the personalized vaccine as early as September, institute’s director Alexander Gintsburg said.
“According to the roadmap plan that we submitted to the Ministry of Health, although it has not yet been finally approved, we will likely receive permission at the end of August so that we can begin treating people in September,” Gintsburg pointed out.
In 2022, the Gamaleya first used mRNA technology – the base for the first registered Covid-19 vaccine in the world, Sputnik V – to develop a new type of cancer drug: a therapeutic vaccine for patient already diagnosed with cancer.
“While the vaccine is intended for patients diagnosed with primary melanoma, it can also be administered to people who have undergone certain stages of treatment,” Gintsburg has said.
Per Gintsburg, the vaccine prompts the patient’s immune system to destroy malignant cells.
“The shot enables Cytotoxic lymphocytes, or white blood cells, that appear in the body of a vaccinated person to recognize foreign proteins (antigens) on the surface of tumor cells. Cytotoxic lymphocytes then find foreign, metastasizing cells and destroy them throughout the body,” the Gamaleya chief explained.
