Cancer Vaccine Shows Early Promise in Rare Liver Tumor

Fibrolamellar carcinoma (FLC) is one of the rarest and most challenging liver cancers , affecting adolescents and young adults who are otherwise healthy and lacking typical risk factors such as cirrhosis or hepatitis. With no FDA-approved therapies and limited benefit from chemotherapy or immunotherapy, patients with unresectable disease often have few meaningful options. Against this backdrop, investigators at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital are reporting encouraging results from the first clinical trial of a therapeutic vaccine designed specifically for FLC.

In a Phase I study published in Nature Medicine , researchers tested an experimental vaccine targeting the molecular hallmark of FLC: a DNAJB1-PRKACA fusion protein present in v