The NIHR Leeds Clinical Research Facility (CRF) is supporting Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) as part of an expanded fast-track pathway for head and neck cancer patients into a national clinical study of mRNA-based cancer vaccines for head and neck cancer, announced by NHS England.
LTHT is one of 15 NHS sites selected to offer participation in the trial, known as AHEAD-MERIT (BNT113-01), as part of NHS England’s Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad (CVLP), a national programme coordinated by the Southampton Clinical Trials Unit.
The CVLP scheme is designed to enable faster identification and referral for eligible patients to studies investigating mRNA cancer vaccines.
NHS England is working in partnership with BioNTech as part of the trial, which focuses on research into vaccines that aim to stimulate immune responses against cancers associated with human papillomavirus (HPV-16).
The Leeds CRF is supporting local delivery of the AHEAD-MERIT study, providing research infrastructure for clinical assessments and procedures. The facility has previously been involved in supporting referrals to the CVLP for other studies involving bowel cancer.