Australia prepares trial of mRNA vaccine for children with brain tumors
Australia is planning to soon begin the world’s first clinical trial of the personalized mRNA vaccine PaedNeoVax (PTX-108) for children with aggressive brain tumors. A start date for the study has not yet been set. The mother of 16-year-old Kobe Metzler, who has terminal brain cancer, fears that her son will not live to see the trial begin or will not meet the eligibility criteria, ABC News Australia reports.
Personalized vaccine
Small samples of a particular patient’s tumor are used to create PaedNeoVax. The vaccine is intended to engage the immune system’s T cells to identify and attack markers, or proteins, on the surface of tumor cells.
The trial will be conducted at pediatric cancer centers across Australia under ethical and regulatory procedures. At the initial stage, researchers will determine the safest and most effective dosage, closely monitoring the first participants before expanding the study.
The study’s clinical lead, Professor Jordan Hansford of SAHMRI and the University of Adelaide, described the vaccine as a new personalized approach to treating particularly challenging brain tumors. According to him, the study protocol includes eligibility criteria approved by a human research ethics committee.
Family’s appeal
Kobe Metzler was diagnosed 14 months ago with a grade 4 malignant brain tumor and was given a prognosis of 12 to 18 months to live. An MRI scan in June 2025 found diffuse midline glioma, an aggressive tumor that usually affects children and can spread through the central nervous system, including the thalamus, brainstem, and spinal cord.
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After radiation therapy, Kobe gained access to another clinical trial of a drug in November last year. The tumor shrank for a time, but in March this year the cancer began progressing again. With the help of family members and acquaintances with legal and medical expertise, his mother, Bridget Metzler, prepared an appeal concerning her son’s access to the vaccine outside the trial.
Hansford noted that PaedNeoVax is an experimental vaccine that cannot currently be purchased anywhere in the world. Requests for access to unapproved medicines outside a clinical trial are considered directly by the medical team, the family, and the manufacturer.
Access to treatment
The Australian federal government supported the development of PTX-108 with a grant of 2.58 million Australian dollars through the Medical Research Future Fund. Bridget Metzler is asking the government to fund her son’s access to treatment outside the trial when the vaccine becomes available.
Oliver Jarrett, a board member of Brain Tumour Alliance Australia, said pharmaceutical companies could provide experimental medicines to patients free of charge through compassionate access programs. At the same time, Liz Dawes, founder of the Robert Connor Dawes Foundation, stressed that clinical trials are necessary to assess the safety of the therapy and protect children from possible harm.
