個別化ネオアンチゲンワクチン療法の膵臓がんでの治療効果を検証～膵臓がんに対する新しい免疫療法の可能性～

2025-04-09

2025-04-09 九州大学

九州大学大学院医学研究院の仲田興平准教授らの研究グループは、膵臓がん患者16名を対象に、個別化ネオアンチゲン樹状細胞ワクチン療法の効果を検証しました。その結果、81.3%の患者でネオアンチゲン特異的なT細胞が誘導され、再発後の患者では長期生存が確認されました。また、術後補助療法としての適用では、中央値5年間の経過観察中に再発は1名のみで、全員が生存しています。この成果は、膵臓がんに対する新たな免疫療法の可能性を示しています。

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膵癌外科治療後のネオアンチゲンペプチドパルス樹状細胞ワクチン療法:後方視的研究 Neoantigen peptide-pulsed dendritic cell vaccine therapy after surgical treatment of pancreatic cancer: a retrospective study

Koki Oyama,Kohei Nakata,Toshiya Abe,Kento Hirotaka,Nao Fujimori,Kazuma Kiyotani,Chika Iwamoto,Naoki Ikenaga,Shinji Morisaki,Masayo Umebayashi,Hiroto Tanaka,Norihiro Koya,Shinichiro Nakagawa,Kenta Tsujimura,Sachiko Yoshimura,Hideya Onishi,Yusuke Nakamura,Masafumi Nakamura,Takashi Morisak
Frontiers in Immunology Published:03 April 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2025.1571182

Introduction: Pancreatic cancer shows very poor prognosis and high resistance to conventional standard chemotherapy and immunotherapy; therefore, the development of new breakthrough therapies is highly desirable.

Method: We retrospectively evaluated the safety and efficacy of neoantigen peptide-pulsed dendritic cell (Neo-P DC) vaccine therapy after surgical treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Result: The result showed induction of neoantigen-specific T cells in 13 (81.3%) of the 16 patients who received Neo-P DC vaccines. In survival analysis of the nine patients who received Neo-P DC vaccines after recurrence, longer overall survival was observed in patients with neoantigen-specific T cell induction than those without T cell induction. Notably, only one of the seven patients who received Neo-P DC vaccines as adjuvant setting developed recurrence, and no patient died during median follow-up 61 months after surgery (range, 25-70 months). Furthermore, TCR repertoire analyses were performed in a case treated with Neo-P DC vaccine combined with long and short peptides, and one significantly dominant clone induced by the long peptide was detected among CD4⁺ T cell populations.

Discussion: The present study suggests the feasibility and efficacy of Neo-P DC vaccine therapy after surgical treatment of pancreatic cancer in both postoperative recurrence cases and adjuvant setting. A case analysis suggests the importance of combination with long peptides targeting CD4⁺ T cell.