The same mRNA science that brought us the COVID-19 vaccine is being studied for mCRPCa

[tallguy2]

The standard of care for men with mCRPCa after progressing following taxotere chemo and abiraterone is to hit it again with another round of another chemo such as docetaxel. (See Tall_Allen’s posts on this sequencing.). After that, well, our options start to be limited per NCCN guidelines.

Doctors are exploring the same power of mRNA that’s found in some of the COVID-19 vaccines. For those interested in exploring a clinical trial, I find this one of great interest:

PRO-MERIT (Prostate Cancer Messenger RNA Immunotherapy) (PRO-MERIT)

“Patients must have histologically confirmed mCRPC and have progressed after at least 2 but no more than 3 lines of life-prolonging systemic therapy (e.g., abiraterone or enzalutamide, docetaxel, cabazitaxel) or cannot tolerate any of these therapies. These lines of therapy include life-prolonging therapies administered in the metastatic hormone-sensitive setting.”

To find out more go to clinicaltrials.gov and search under prostate cancer and mRNA. This trial popped up as the second one in my search. I haven’t progressed (yet) on abiraterone or I might just look into the trial. This may well be a future treatment for many of us!

[Danish-patient]

That’s extremely interesting and not a very far shot - the RNA technology used in covid vaccines was being developed for use in cancer treatment when a certain new virus emerged and shifted researchers focus.

[CSHobie]

This is great news. I hope we all live long enough to the see and get the cure.

[tallguy2 in reply to CSHobie]

Save a place in line for me!

[j-o-h-n]

Three cheers (and 2 shots) for a Pandemic!!!

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Wednesday 05/05/2021 7:32 PM DST - Cinco de Mayo

[mypk]

I had applied for BionTech's Pro-Merit study 2 years ago, but had been rejected even though I had met all the inclusion criteria listed on clinicaltrials.gov.

In retrospect, that was good for me, because the trial for the mCRPC arm has since proven to be a failure, just like the clinical trial for CureVac's CV9104 with a similar approach a few years earlier - and 'Plan B' (Abiraterone acetate) was the better choice at that time.