Efficacy and Safety of MUC1 Antigen-Specific Vaccine as a Breakthrough Solution in the Treatment of Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

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Introduction: Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of death for cancer patients globally. Most of the patients are diagnosed in advanced stage that can only receive conventional chemotherapy with low overall survival and low progression-free survival outcomes. With the advancement of technology, researchers have discovered that antigen-specific vaccine could be utilized to fight tumor cells. MUC1 antigen-specific vaccine is a novel solution that has been proved to be specific and accurate against NSCLC. In this study, we would like to present current best evidences regarding the efficacy and safety of MUC1 antigen specific vaccine in battling NSCLC. Methods: Literature search was conducted on databases, namely PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane, Science Direct, EBSCOhost, and Google Scholar up to August 27th 2022. Our inclusion criteria include randomized controlled trials in patients with advanced stage NSCLC, given MUC1 antigen-specific vaccine as treatment, compared to placebo as control group, and measured the efficacy in terms of overall survival and progression-free survival, quality of life, and adverse events. Results and discussion: Six randomized controlled trials were included in this review. Overall, longer overall survival and progression-free survival is observed in all studies. However, significance differed from study to study. This could be attributed to different patient characteristics and chemotherapy regimens used. MUC1 antigen-specific vaccine is more effective in patients who received concurrent chemoradiotherapy, high sMUC1 and ANA level, and non-squamous tumor type. Minimum adverse events were reported and incidence is similar with the control group. No negative impact on quality of life was observed. Conclusion: MUC1 vaccine showed a promising impact on improving patients’ overall survival and progression-free survival while ensuring patient’s safety. However, further studies with larger sample size are recommended on more specific populations, for instance, patients with concurrent chemotherapy.