# Immunoprevention and immunosurveillance of human non-viral cancers

> **NIH NIH R35** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2020 · $880,514

## Abstract

Abstract
 My research over the last 25 years has been unique in providing data and scientific
leadership on the path towards a prevention vaccine for non-viral cancers. Cancer immunotherapy
is now a reality and both academia and pharmaceutical companies are focusing on the next best
treatment for advanced cancer. This is unfortunate given the fact that even as successful as some
cancer immunotherapy was recently shown to be, it helps only a fraction of patients and cures even
a smaller subset of those. It is also the most expensive cancer treatment making it less likely to be
broadly available to all who need it around the world. What is needed to focus attention of the field
on immunoprevention are a few clinical successes and relevant basic science data to help interpret
those and point a path forward. My research has been providing such data. Currently I am
providing first examples of preventative cancer vaccines in clinical trials. With my clinical
colleagues, FDA approval and NCI support, I completed the first in the world clinical trial testing a
vaccine based on a human tumor antigen MUC1 in people at high risk for colon cancer This
feasibility study enabled the second, currently ongoing, multi-center, double-blind, randomized,
placebo controlled efficacy trial that will complete accrual in the Spring of 2016. In analyzing these
trials we are obtaining new data, some of it very unexpected, important for the next set of
preventative cancer vaccines that I am planning to develop, but also applicable to other vaccines
and cancer immunotherapies. In the next seven years, my program will be focused on 1) Learning
as much as possible from my first preventative vaccine trials; defining parameters controlling the
response to and potential efficacy of the MUC1 vaccine through extensive molecular, cellular and
proteomic analysis of PBMC and tissue samples; 2) Providing data in support of other premalignant
lesions as candidates for preventative cancer vaccines and designing new cancer prevention trials;
3) Developing a universal vaccine for prevention and control of cancer as well as pathogens. Our
work will hopefully encourage other cancer immunologists and immunotherapists to consider
immunoprevention of non-viral cancers as an important approach to reducing the cancer epidemic.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9981703
- **Project number:** 5R35CA210039-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Olivera J Finn
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $880,514
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-08-01 → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9981703

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9981703, Immunoprevention and immunosurveillance of human non-viral cancers (5R35CA210039-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9981703. Licensed CC0.

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