The UK is accelerating research on cancer vaccines produced using mRNA (messaging ribonucleic acid) technology in collaboration with the German-based pharmaceutical company BioNTech.
After the success achieved with the mRNA method in the Covid-19 vaccine, scientists are working to adapt the same technology to cancer this time, and aim to try a new cancer vaccine on approximately 10 thousand people by 2030.
The UK is the first country to partner with these studies.
Some of the patients participating in the study will have been treated for cancer, and the vaccine will aim to prevent the recurrence of the disease.
In other people diagnosed with cancer, it will be aimed to slow down or prevent the spread of the disease in the body.
MRNA is quite different from chemotherapy technology, which targets many other cells as well as cancerous cells in the body during treatment.
The mRNA vaccine, which is specially prepared for the person, contains the information of the genetic codes from the cancer in the body and these are transferred to the immune system.
The immune system is thus programmed to target only tumor cells.
However, since cancer is a complex disease, it may be necessary to give the vaccine more than once to remind the immune system.
Speaking to the BBC, BioNTech co-founder Professor Özlem Türeci likens it to hanging a “Wanted” poster.
According to Türeci, the body is thus directed to be alert and fight:
“Our goal here is to use molecular features in patients’ individual cancers to encode them into mRNA vaccines and train the immune system to attack them.”
Work in the UK will start from September
It is more expensive to produce this personalized vaccine compared to other technologies.
Although BioNTech says that all health systems will have affordable access to the vaccine, feasibility studies need to continue.
On the other hand, each country’s vaccine inspection and approval process is different.
Türeci says that England is a very good country for such a partnership:
“We saw the rapid approval of vaccines in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic, the drug regulatory agency is working really well. The genomic analysis infrastructure is very important in this study and the UK is among the leading countries in this field,” he says.
“Our goal is to provide patients with the best treatment when cancer is diagnosed,” said Steve Barclay, the UK’s Minister of Health and Social Services. BioNTech was one of the pioneers in developing the Covid-19 vaccine and they share our commitment to scientific progress.
“Thanks to our collaboration, the first patients will join the trials from September of this year.”
Cancer Research UK spokesperson Dr. “mRNA vaccines are one of the most exciting studies to come during the pandemic. There are many indications that this technology will be an effective treatment for cancer, but research needs to continue,” says Ian Foulkes.