• mRNA Vaccines for Next-Generation Immunotherapy in Gastrointestinal Cancers
  • Maryam Sarafrazi,1,*
    1. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Basic Sciences (Fakhri Zadeh), Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran


  • Introduction: Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers represent a significant global health burden with limited treatment options for advanced stages. While immunotherapy using checkpoint inhibitors has shown remarkable success in some malignancies, its efficacy in most GI cancers remains suboptimal due to immunosuppressive tumor microenvironments and low mutational burden. This study explores the emerging role of mRNA vaccine technology as a transformative platform for overcoming these limitations in GI cancer treatment.
  • Methods: Our analysis synthesized recent clinical evidence from multiple phase I/II trials investigating mRNA vaccines in advanced GI cancers, evaluating safety profiles, immunological responses, and clinical outcomes. The assessment included comprehensive data from combination therapies with immune checkpoint inhibitors, analyzing objective response rates, progression-free survival, and tumor microenvironment modifications.
  • Results: The evaluation demonstrated that mRNA vaccines, particularly when combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors, achieved objective response rates of 65.6% and disease control rates of 84.4% in refractory cases. Key findings included a favorable safety profile with predominantly grade 1-2 adverse events, significant improvement in progression-free survival (13.2 months), successful induction of robust humoral and cellular immune responses, enhanced T-cell infiltration into tumor sites, and synergistic effects with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors.
  • Conclusion: mRNA vaccine technology represents a paradigm shift in GI cancer immunotherapy, demonstrating exceptional potential through its ability to generate personalized, potent anti-tumor immune responses. The platform's unique advantages - including rapid development timeline, flexibility in antigen selection, and capacity to encode multiple tumor antigens - position it as a cornerstone of next-generation cancer treatment. Future directions should focus on optimizing delivery systems and validating these approaches in larger randomized controlled trials.
  • Keywords: mRNA Vaccine, Cancer Immunotherapy, Gastrointestinal Cancers, Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors, Clinical