Investigating Personalized Vaccine Use in Kidney Cancer Care

Personalized vaccines are currently being investigated for the treatment of patients with kidney cancer, according to Dr. David A. Braun; however, the investigation of these drugs are still in early development stages.

“We are still in the early stages of development. The hope is that this will be another tool in our arsenal for treating kidney cancer,” Braun explained in an interview with CURE.

Notably, he shared what exactly a personalized cancer vaccine is in an additional interview with CURE. He says that they really help the immune system to attack a specific target, which is in this case, cancer.

Braun currently serves as an assistant professor of medicine (Medical Oncology) and a Louis Goodman and Alfred Gilman Yale Scholar at Yale School of Medicine. Moreover, he is also a member of the Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology at Yale Cancer Center.

Transcript

How could a personalized cancer vaccine potentially help someone with kidney cancer?

We are still in the very early stages of development. The hope is that this will be another tool in our arsenal for treating patients with kidney cancer. [Personalized cancer vaccines] are being tested first in what is called the adjuvant setting, for patients who have had a kidney tumor removed and have no evidence of cancer elsewhere in the body but are at risk of a recurrence. The question is, can we give a treatment that decreases the chance of the kidney cancer returning?

So far, there is one such treatment called Keytruda (pembrolizumab), and while it has helped many patients, many others don't benefit from it. The setting we are looking at first is, can we improve upon that drug, Keytruda, by adding this steering wheel with a personalized cancer vaccine? Can we decrease the chance of kidney cancer coming back after surgery?

Reference

1. “How Personalized Cancer Vaccines Are Advancing Kidney Cancer Care,” by Dr. David A. Braun. CURE, July 18, 2025; https://www.curetoday.com/view/how-personalized-cancer-vaccines-are-advancing-kidney-cancer-care

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

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