First man in Britain to receive groundbreaking lung cancer vaccine – amid worrying rise in disease among young, never-smokers
A man who was ‘coincidentally’ diagnosed with fatal lung cancer has become the first in the UK to receive a ‘groundbreaking’ vaccine.
Janusz Racz from London was given the heartbreaking diagnosis in May that he had just four to five months to live after the disease was discovered during a colonoscopy.
When told that chemotherapy and radiation therapy would give the 67-year-old scientist only a 35 percent chance of surviving more than five years, he decided to take part in a groundbreaking study of the vaccine.
The vaccine, codenamed BNT116, is being made by BioNTech using the same mRNA technology that underpins the highly effective Covid vaccine.
Doctors believe the treatment, which has been specially developed to prevent cancer from returning in patients, heralds a new era in the fight against the disease.
Janusz Racz from London was given the heartbreaking diagnosis in May that he had just four to five months to live after the disease was discovered during a colonoscopy
When told that chemotherapy and radiation therapy would give the 67-year-old scientist only a 35 percent chance of surviving more than five years, he chose to take part in the groundbreaking study
They say the drug is designed to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common form of the disease, and is much more targeted than chemotherapy.
This means it should not cause the same collateral damage to healthy cells that can sometimes cause overwhelming side effects.
Mr Racz received six injections, five minutes apart, at University College London Hospital (UCLH) on Tuesday.
Each prick contained several strands of RNA.
He will now receive the vaccine every week for six weeks, after which he will receive it every three weeks for 54 weeks.
He spoke about his diagnosis: ‘I had an appointment for a colonoscopy and my blood pressure was too high, so the doctor decided to refer me for a CT colonoscopy.
‘It was mid-February when they discovered something in my lung, my right lung.’
Emergency tests confirmed he had lung cancer. The disease affects around 50,000 people in the UK and US each year, with 230,000 in the US.
“The chemotherapy was a huge challenge, I really wouldn’t want to go through that again,” said Mr Racz.
When told about the study and “how it was different from the treatment I had recently completed,” he decided “to take part because I hope it will protect against cancer cells.”
He added: ‘I am also a scientist and I understand that the advancement of science – especially in medicine – depends on people agreeing to participate in such studies.
“I can be part of the team that can deliver the proof of concept for this new methodology. The sooner it is implemented worldwide, the more people can be saved.”
Before Mr. Racz became ill, he was very active, climbing several mountains and running marathons in seven countries.
He said: ‘I think after the treatment I will come back, become stronger. My dream is to maybe run more marathons.
“I’ve never had the chance to run the London Marathon because it’s a lottery. Maybe it would be an opportunity to run the marathon as a member of this program.”
The research is taking place at 34 research sites in seven countries, six of which are in England and Wales.
In total, it is hoped to recruit around 130 lung cancer patients, 20 of whom will live in the UK.
Mr Racz received six injections, five minutes apart, at University College London Hospital (UCLH) on Tuesday. Each jab contained different strands of RNA. He will now receive the vaccine every week for six weeks, before receiving it every three weeks for 54 weeks
Mr. Racz was very active before he got sick, he climbed several mountains and ran marathons in seven countries. He said: ‘I think after the treatment I will come back, I will be stronger. My dream is to maybe run more marathons’
Professor Siow Ming Lee, a medical oncologist at UCLH, the organisation leading the UK research, said: ‘This technology has developed incredibly quickly.
‘It’s easy to administer and you can select specific antigens in the cancer cell and then target them.’
The Phase 1 clinical trial is the first in-human study of BNT116, which is given to lung cancer patients in addition to standard immunotherapy.
‘Immunotherapy has made great progress, especially in lung cancer,’ added Prof. Lee. ‘But it still does not successfully treat all lung cancer patients.
“We know it is well tolerated by our patients who get the Covid vaccine, so we hope it will be well tolerated by cancer patients as well.
He added: ‘We hope to move on to phase two, phase three, and hope that then it becomes the standard of care worldwide and saves many lung cancer patients.
“We need to try to push the boundaries, and we’ve been doing that here for 30 to 40 years. It’s a privilege to be involved in lung cancer research.”
In July 2023, the government signed an agreement with BioNTech to provide up to 10,000 patients with precision cancer immunotherapies by 2030.
Lung cancer is the world’s leading cancer killer. It is notoriously difficult to diagnose and often appears later, when it is more difficult to treat.
Figures show it kills four out of five patients within five years, with fewer than 10 percent of people surviving their disease for 10 years or more.
Despite progress, gender inequality is emerging: women between the ages of 35 and 54 are more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer than men in the same age group.
Symptoms of lung cancer are often not noticed until the cancer has spread from the lungs to other parts of the body.
Smoking is still the leading cause of lung cancer.
However, the proportion of young patients with the disease who have never smoked is also increasing.
Researchers believe the way new homes are being built could be exposing residents to a toxic gas. They also say vaping and cannabis could be factors.
It is unusual for the clinical trial to include patients who are in early stages of the disease and have not yet undergone surgery or radiotherapy. Patients whose cancer has spread or returned are also included in the trial.
It keeps options open for how the vaccine can best be used to improve outcomes for people with cancer.
Dame Cally Palmer, NHS England’s national cancer director, said: ‘The NHS is leading the world in testing cancer vaccines. If we are successful, they could revolutionise vaccinating people against their own cancer, preventing it from coming back after initial treatment.
‘Hospitals across the country, together with their university and industry partners, are doing groundbreaking work to see how the body’s own immune system can be harnessed to treat different types of cancer.
‘A cancer diagnosis is deeply distressing, but access to groundbreaking research – among other innovations to diagnose and treat cancer earlier – offers hope.
‘We expect that thousands more patients will participate in the studies in the coming years.’