ArticleCancers2021
Clinical Activity of an hTERT-Specific Cancer Vaccine (Vx-001) in "Immune Desert" NSCLC.
Article in Cancers, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Therapeutic vaccines for advanced non-small cell lung cancer.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Targeting Telomerase in Cancer: Vaccine-Based Strategies, Clinical Evidence, and Synergy with Immunotherapy.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Harnessing Vaccines in the Treatment of Solid Tumors: Advances, Challenges, and Future Directions.Vaccines · 2026Review
- Telomere Maintenance and DNA Repair: A Bidirectional Relationship in Cancer Biology and Therapy.Cancers · 2025Review
- Review
- Tumor treating fields enhance anti-PD therapy by improving CCL2/8 and CXCL9/CXCL10 expression through inducing immunogenic cell death in NSCLC models.BMC cancer · 2025Article
- Telomerase-based vaccines: a promising frontier in cancer immunotherapy.Cancer cell international · 2024Review
- Clinical research progress of telomerase targeted cancer immunotherapy: a literature review.Translational cancer research · 2024Review
- Pre-Existing Immunity Predicts Response to First-Line Immunotherapy in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients.Cancers · 2024Article
- Mechanisms of resistance to targeted therapy and immunotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer: promising strategies to overcoming challenges.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- Regulation of telomerase towards tumor therapy.Cell & bioscience · 2023Review
- Bidirectional crosstalk between therapeutic cancer vaccines and the tumor microenvironment: Beyond tumor antigens.Fundamental research · 2023Review
- Evolutions in the management of non-small cell lung cancer: A bibliometric study from the 100 most impactful articles in the field.Frontiers in oncology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 8 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTumors can be separated into immunogenic/hot and non-immunogenic/cold on the basis of the presence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), the expression of PD-L1 and the tumor mutation burden (TMB). In immunogenic tumors, TILs become unable to control tumor growth because their activity is suppressed by different inhibitory pathways, including PD-1/PD-L1. We hypothesized that tumor vaccines may not be active in the immunosuppressive microenvironment of immunogenic/hot tumors while they could be efficient in the immune naïve microenvironment of non-immunogenic/cold tumors.
methodsThe randomized phase II Vx-001-201 study investigated the effect of the Vx-001 vaccine as maintenance treatment in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Biopsies from 131 (68 placebo and 63 Vx-001) patients were retrospectively analyzed for PD-L1 expression and TIL infiltration. TILs were measured as tumor-associated immune cells (TAICs), CD3-TILs, CD8-TILs and granzyme B-producing TILs (GZMB-TILs). Patients were distinguished into PD-L1(+) and PD-L1(-) and into TIL high and TIL low.
findingsThere was no correlation between PD-L1 expression and Vx-001 clinical activity. In contrast, Vx-001 showed a significant improvement of overall survival (OS) vs. placebo in TAIC low (21 vs. 8.1 months,
conclusionsThese results support the hypothesis that Vx-001 may be efficient in patients with non-immunogenic/cold but not with immunogenic/hot tumors.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.