BioNTech’s HPV16 mRNA vaccine BNT113 failed to significantly delay progression of head and neck cancer in a phase II/III trial, the latest in a string of near-misses for off-the-shelf, shared-antigen cancer vaccines that reliably generate T cells but have struggled to improve patient outcomes. Researchers argue the vaccines themselves are working, and that success will depend on testing them in the right patients and settings and judging them by overall survival rather than tumor progression.
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