1st-of-its-kind pancreatic cancer vaccine trial in Cincinnati looking for patients | News from WDRB [Video]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A pancreatic cancer vaccine trial is now open for enrollment at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center, the first trial of its kind in the Midwest, the university said in a news release Tuesday.

Pancreatic cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer death in women and the fourth-leading cause in cancer death for men, according to the National Cancer Institute. More than 64,000 Americans were diagnosed in 2023.

UC said the trial builds on the same mRNA technology used to development the COVID-19 vaccines.

“They took the COVID virus and sequenced it and then made a vaccine against its RNA sequence, and here they do the same thing,” Davendra Sohal, MD, associate director for clinical research at the Cancer Center and professor of internal medicine in UC’s College of Medicine, said in a news release Tuesday. “After surgery to remove the tumor, a piece of it is taken and sent to the lab. They sequence the tumor, make a highly …