At 72, the retired accountant hikes, travels, lifts weights, and exchanges adoring glances with Ed, the husband she married 50 years ago. All these moments are happening while she shows zero evidence of the Stage II pancreatic cancer that was supposed to kill her years ago. "I have had 100% quality of life; I am back to where I was prior," Gustafson says.
"She's better than that," her husband interjects. "She's sassier, and she's in the best shape of her life — there's no question about 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. 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.
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. 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. But researchers don't yet understand why some trials have failed, while others show eye-popping results in the form of people like Gustafson.
Want the latest stories on the science of healthy living? Subscribe to NPR's Health newsletter. 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.
She credits her three grown daughters for finding and getting her into the trial. "It was a no brainer," she says. "I knew that statistically, the odds of my survival were low, and I was very happy to be offered some type of hope." Gustafson received nine doses of the vaccine, along with surgery and chemotherapy.
She was part of a small clinical trial involving 16 pancreatic cancer patients. The vaccine worked on half of the patients, and seven of those eight are still alive today. For patients on these vaccines, treatment is also an easier option.
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