2023-10-10 17:45:05
Preparation of the personalized “TG4050” vaccine in the Transgene laboratory, in Illkirch-Graffenstaden (Bas-Rhin), in 2023. RÉGIS SUHNER/TRANSGENE
When his oncologist at the Institut Curie (Paris) suggested that he participate in a clinical trial of a therapeutic vaccine aimed at preventing a recurrence of his tongue cancer, Hervé F. did not procrastinate for long. “Between a high risk of relapse and telling myself that with this vaccine I might still have a few more years ahead of me, I didn’t hesitate”, he concedes.
Before getting there, this 65-year-old man diagnosed in mid-2021 underwent classic treatment: surgical, with the removal of his tumor which led to the removal of a large part of the tongue, then radiotherapy sessions. “An extremely painful treatment which ended in January 2022.” When we reach him on the phone, we perceive a certain difficulty in articulating, but according to him, Hervé F. speaks and eats better and better thanks to rehabilitation.
The date of July 25, 2022 remains engraved in his memory. That day, Hervé F. received a first injection. Then twenty injections, one per week for the first six, then every two weeks. “If this vaccine can delay or prevent the return of cancer, that’s tremendous hope”he said, specifying that he is doing well, that he has gained weight and has had no side effects.
Called “TG4050”, this vaccine targets ENT cancers, also called “head and neck cancers” (mouth, pharynx, larynx). Caused by tobacco, alcohol and in some cases by certain types of papillomavirus, these cancers present a high risk of recurrence (50%). This vaccine was developed by the French biotechnology company Transgene, based in Illkirch-Graffenstaden (Bas-Rhin), a subsidiary of the Institut Mérieux and listed on the stock exchange. The international trial, carried out for France by Jean-Pierre Delord, oncologist and director of the Toulouse University Cancer Institute (IUCT)-Oncopole, and Christophe Le Tourneau, director of the early clinical trials department at the Institut Curie, started in January 2021 in Toulouse. Thirty-two patients treated for head and neck cancer (negative for HPV virus, human papillomavirus virus) were included in this randomized phase 1 clinical trial (sixteen vaccinated patients and sixteen patients in the control group).
Identify mutations
Unlike the biotechs Moderna and BioNTech which rely on messenger RNA to develop their therapeutic vaccines, Transgene is betting on so-called “viral vector” technology. The objective is the same: to educate the immune system to spot abnormalities to which it does not react. In other words, stimulate T lymphocytes – these cells capable of recognizing and destroying tumor cells.
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