(NBC News) – Scientists caution that more research is needed, but nearly all of the patients who responded to the personalized vaccine are still alive six years later.

She and her husband, Ed, were on the next flight home. Nine days later, Gustafson had surgery to remove the Stage 2 cancer from her pancreas. The day before she was supposed to start chemotherapy, her doctors told her about a clinical trial exploring the use of personalized messenger RNA vaccines for cancer. It was February 2020 — months before mRNA vaccines for Covid would become one of the world’s hottest commodities. Very soon after, Gustafson was the first person to get one for pancreatic cancer.

“It was a no-brainer,” Gustafson said of joining the trial. “I knew that statistically, the odds were against me.” (Read More)