Rare six-year survival signal in pancreatic cancer from eight-patient mRNA vaccine cohort

Pancreatic cancer almost never gives you long survival even after surgery, so a small group staying alive ~6 years stands out. In an early trial, patients got a personalized mRNA vaccine built from their tumor mutations after resection, aiming to train T cells against those neoantigens.

Eight patients mounted strong vaccine-linked T‑cell responses, and nearly all of them were still alive at about the six-year follow-up. That's against a backdrop of roughly 13% five-year survival overall. It's a tiny phase 1 cohort, but the signal is durability in a cancer where durable responses are rare.