This woman defied lethal cancer.
asserted
woman → defy → cancer
Can mRNA vaccines make that possible for others?
asserted
that → make → others
Donna Gustafson is living a cancer patient's fantasy.
asserted
Gustafson → live → fantasy
At 72, the retired accountant hikes, travels, lifts weights, and exchanges adoring glances with Ed, the husband she married 50 years ago.
asserted
she → hike → Ed
All these moments are happening while she shows zero evidence of the Stage II pancreatic cancer that was supposed to kill her years ago.
asserted
that → happen → her
"I have had 100% quality of life; I am back to where I was prior," Gustafson says.
asserted
Gustafson → have → life
"She's better than that," her husband interjects.
asserted
husband → interject → that
"She's sassier, and she's in the best shape of her life — there's no question about that."
asserted
she → be → that
Seven years ago, Gustafson became the world's first recipient of an mRNA vaccine designed to treat pancreatic cancer, a highly lethal disease diagnosed in about 70,000 Americans every year.
asserted
Gustafson → become → Americans
There are few effective treatments for the disease, but Gustafson's was a personalized version, created using samples of her tumor, aiming to reprogram her immune cells — training them, essentially, to recognize distinctive mutant proteins on cancerous cells and kill them.
asserted
Gustafson → be → them
mRNA vaccines having a moment
It's been a big year for cancer vaccines using mRNA, especially after drugmakers Merck and Moderna released results last month from the first major successful trial of mRNA vaccines for skin cancer, showing a 42% reduction in recurrence and death over two years.
asserted
Merck → have → years
A combination of technologies using mRNA, genomics and AI, helped create these vaccines, which are also being tested on lung, kidney, bladder and brain cancers.
asserted
which → use → cancers
But researchers don't yet understand why some trials have failed, while others show eye-popping results in the form of people like Gustafson.
asserted
others → understand → Gustafson
Gustafson, who splits her time between New Jersey and Florida, says she wasn't scared to be first to test this concept against pancreatic cancer.
asserted
she → split → cancer
She credits her three grown daughters for finding and getting her into the trial.
asserted
She → credit → trial
"It was a no brainer," she says.
asserted
she → say → ?
"I knew that statistically, the odds of my survival were low, and I was very happy to be offered some type of hope."
asserted
I → know → hope
Gustafson received nine doses of the vaccine, along with surgery and chemotherapy.
asserted
Gustafson → receive → surgery
She was part of a small clinical trial involving 16 pancreatic cancer patients.
asserted
She → involve → patients
The vaccine worked on half of the patients, and seven of those eight are still alive today.
asserted
seven → work → eight
It does not compare to chemotherapy, which requires hours of infusion and comes with after-effects that were "barbaric" for his wife, Ed Gustafson says with a shudder.
asserted
Gustafson → compare → shudder
By contrast: The shots felt like nothing, Donna Gustafson says.
asserted
Gustafson → feel → nothing
"I had no symptoms, no side effects — to the point where I was actually worried that maybe it was not helping.
asserted
it → have → point
Surgeon and scientist Vinod Balachandran ran the trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
asserted
Balachandran → run → City
The vaccine used in his research is made in an expansive lab made up of hallways of freezers, desks, centrifuges and cytometers.
asserted
vaccine → use → freezers
Patients' responses to the treatment are measured in the lab.
asserted
responses → measure → lab
The oncologists and mathematicians who work there are dedicated to decoding pancreatic cancer, then reverse engineering the mRNA necessary to fight it.
asserted
who → work → it
A research analyst pulls up a graph on her computer, showing dozens of superimposed green lines — each representing the number of times an immune cell reproduces, Balachandran explains.
asserted
Balachandran → pull → times
Looking at the graph representing Donna Gustafson's immune cell count, Balachandran notes how the lines shoot up, then remain high and flat — "a 10,000-fold increase" — reflecting how her immune system mass produced cancer-attacking cells and sustained it, for years beyond her last shot.
asserted
system → look → shot
"It just tells us that this response lasts," Balachandran says.
asserted
Balachandran → tell → us
Balachandran says it was the strength and durability of such responses in half of the patients that, for him, blew open the possibility of mRNA vaccines.
asserted
that → say → vaccines
"Well, if you could generate such a strong immune response in the toughest of cancers, could this similarly develop cancer vaccines for a broad array of human cancers?," he says.
uncertain
he → generate → cancers
The National Cancer Institute, for example, is working on a partnership with private companies to fast-track research and development of more mRNA cancer vaccines.
asserted
Institute → work → vaccines
Balachandran and Sloan Kettering are part of that, with plans to expand production of personalized vaccines for patients on site.
asserted
Kettering → expand → site
Donna Gustafson says she and her husband have felt overwhelmingly lucky over the past seven years.
asserted
she → say → years
"I saw two more grandchildren be born and grow, many birthdays, holidays and Christmases with my family," she says.
asserted
she → see → family
With her husband, she's created and ticked off many items off her bucket list: skydiving, summiting, celebrating their 50th anniversary with the expectation of many more to come.
asserted
she → create → more
"We've done so many things — we probably have done so much more," Ed Gustafson says, before his wife picks up his sentence, "...if we had not had this experience."
asserted
we → do → experience
"We live so much more for the day now," Ed Gustafson says, looking at his wife.
asserted
Gustafson → live → wife
The Aporia
