Did Scientists Just Invent a Cancer Vaccine? | Unveiled

Did Scientists Just Invent a Cancer Vaccine?

It’s one of the biggest killers in the world and the top cause of death in numerous countries. So many people worry in their day-to-day lives that they’re going to get it and there’s nothing that can be done. But we may have just made one of the most exciting innovations in the entire history of cancer research and treatment.

So, this is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; did scientists just invent a cancer vaccine?

In July 2022, a study reporting on a novel cancer treatment made headlines after it produced some extremely promising results. This small (and ongoing) clinical trial is being undertaken at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, a leading research hospital for oncology in the UK. So far, eight patients have been given an experimental vaccine (produced by a French company, called Transgene) to target various head and neck cancers, that appear in the mouth, throat, and nose - including some that can traditionally prove very difficult to treat. And, though it’s a small sample size at present, it’s hoped that this vaccine will go on to have a major impact on both the physical and psychological wellbeing of patients.

Almost every other life-saving treatment that’s available today also began with similar, small-scale, clinical trials. We know that bringing new medicines and vaccines into the world is a long and complicated road. But, importantly, the vaccine that’s being trialed here perhaps isn’t what you’d immediately think of a vaccine to be. The reported “cancer vaccines” - codenamed TG4050 - aren’t a means to prevent you from getting the disease in the first place, but rather are “treatment vaccines” only suitable for patients who already have cancer. The eight people in the initial study have already completed other cancer treatments, then, such as chemotherapy. But the new vaccine is used by doctors in a bid to stop their cancers from coming back. As cancer frequently goes into remission only to then return at a later date, any ability to block that return could be vital!

So, how does it actually work? Essentially, it’s DNA from the patient’s tumor that gets put into a virus… and then injected back into their body. It perhaps sounds frightening, but there is solid science behind the procedure. The virus that gets injected back is harmless, but its presence can train a patient’s body to fight back against the development of new cancerous cells, of the same type as their existing cancer. It’s prompting the body to learn what that cancer looks like, and thereby tackle it as effectively as possible - leading many to describe it as a “personalized” treatment. And what’s really exciting is that, so far, at the time of publishing, all of the eight patients immunized in this way haven’t seen their cancer return. We’re still at a very early stage, but so far it seems to work!

It’s a treatment that still requires time, mind you. It takes a lot of individual vaccinations for any one patient before results start to form – sometimes as many as twenty – but any side effects appear to be minimal, or in some cases non-existent. And the early studies suggest that treatment times are still quicker (and the process is certainly less invasive) than many of the other cancer options, including difficult surgeries and courses of radiotherapy. Understandably, the news is still being taken with caution by all involved and affected. It takes years of treatment to truly see whether any one cancer is in partial or full remission, so we still have a long way to go until the true efficacy of these vaccines is known. For now, though, we can at least say that the first results are promising enough that we’re certainly going to see more and more follow-up studies in the coming years. This could turn into a development that really shapes cancer research in the future.

But it’s not as though it’s “come out of nowhere”, either. It’s a potential breakthrough that’s been built on past research, and past success. An interesting thing about TG4050, for example, is that it may not have happened, and certainly not so quickly, without the Covid-19 pandemic. The scientists working on the cancer vaccine are actually using the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, one of the first developed to treat the virus, as a basis for TG4050. In general, without the massive and unprecedented investment in vaccinations, vaccine storage, and immunology that we saw throughout 2020 and 2021, treatments like this perhaps wouldn’t be possible. And it’s not just AstraZeneca that’s being repurposed for cancer, either; both of the other most widely-distributed Covid vaccines, from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, are (according to reports) also inspiring early studies toward personalized cancer jabs.

None of these vaccine treatments, however, are the first we’ve ever used for cancers. In fact, you may have already been vaccinated against cancer, and thought little of it. The HPV vaccine, which protects against some human papillomaviruses, is primarily used with the view to prevent cervical cancer. For years, it’s been a routine vaccination in many countries, and is easily available in others. It also has a very high efficacy, offering as much as ninety percent protection. And although the HPV vaccine was initially, predominantly only offered to young girls as a routine shot, it’s now increasingly offered to people of all genders because it’s been found that it can also prevent other problems, including anal cancer and the development of warts. Although most cancers aren’t caused by viruses, another that often is is liver cancer - which, in some cases, is linked to hepatitis B and C. So, in many ways, the hepatitis B vaccine, approved for wide use in humans in the US in 1981, can be thought of as the true “first cancer vaccine” – and that came about more than forty years ago!

It should also be said that there are treatment vaccines - similar to this latest one - already out there, as well, targeting lung cancer, which is the second most common cancer type worldwide after breast cancer. CimaVax-EGF was developed in Cuba and was first used in the 2010s. For a while Cuba was the only country with access to it, but it’s now used in many South and Central American countries, while others - including the United States - are currently testing CimaVax-EGF for themselves. Again, this isn’t a vaccine that will prevent you from getting lung cancer in the first place, rather it’s used to treat those who already have it – but that’s still up to twelve percent of all cancer patients globally. And, again, there are other, similar vaccines currently being studied and developed all over the world.

There’s no doubt, then, that there are reasons to be hopeful. This is science bidding to finally beat one of the greatest dangers to human life. But, slightly more concerningly, there are some reported signs that cancer research funding is still struggling, with some of the public (and private) cash for cancer being diverted towards the Covid effort in recent times. The situation is different country-to-country, region-to-region, and we know that in some ways the Covid drive has worked in favor of cancer research, with new technologies like this vaccine based on Covid innovations. But, still, there are calls for higher and steadier funding for cancer research, direct.

Because, ultimately, breakthroughs like the TG4050 vaccine are monumental and crucial for us as a species. They provide another weapon in the fight, and another hope that we’ll one day cure cancer for good. Almost a quarter way through the twenty-first century, and while we have some established vaccine products (for prevention and treatment) there are more and more emerging. And TG4050 might just be the most exciting and promising of all. It offers custom-built treatment options, for various cancers, in place of past and current procedures which can’t be so personalized patient-to-patient. It’s hoped that oncologists will be able to approach every single case, then, with as specific and efficient a treatment as possible.

There’s likely nobody on Earth who hasn’t had a personal experience with cancer, in some way. Whether that’s because they’ve had it or because someone close to them has. It’s a global issue, and a worldwide challenge. But scientists are continually trying to turn the tide against it. And while this latest study doesn’t yet rid us of cancer entirely, and although there’s still a long way to go until that becomes possible, it would appear as though we have just made another significant step along the path. It will take time before we know the true, long-term effectiveness of it… or before we can perhaps learn from it to tackle yet more variations of this disease… but that’s why scientists (at an early stage) seemingly have just invented a cancer vaccine.