Personalized cancer vaccines will be available within five years, predicts the head of a company that produced a successful Covid vaccine.
Dr. Paul Burton, chief medical officer of the American company Moderna, said that the production of their mRNA Covid vaccine compressed many years of work – greatly accelerating development in this area.
In addition to tailored cancer vaccines, others to protect against or treat “all kinds of diseases,” including heart disease and autoimmune diseases, are now within reach.
In conversation with The Guardian, Dr. Burton, Moderna is developing cancer vaccines to target different types of tumors: “We’re going to have this vaccine and it’s going to be very effective and it’s going to save hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives.”
He added: “I think we will be able to offer personalized cancer vaccines against several different tumor types.”
Personalized cancer vaccines will be available within five years, predicts the head of a company that produced a successful Covid vaccine
While cancer vaccines are usually intended as a preventative measure—usually by preventing someone from getting an infection—they are now being developed primarily as a form of treatment.
The idea is to first take a sample of a patient’s tumor and analyze it genetically to determine which mutations are responsible for its growth.
A customized mRNA molecule is then produced – a genetic blueprint that tells cells to make proteins. This tells the cells to make an ‘antigen’ associated with that cancer – a kind of ‘flag’ that a cancer cell gives away.
A large number of these molecules are then injected into the patient, causing the cells to make the “flags”. After the patient’s cells make them, the theory goes, their immune system can recognize them — and the cancer cells they represent — as dangerous invaders. It destroys these cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed.
This is an adaptation of the same process used to make mRNA vaccines for Covid – only instead of teaching the immune system to recognize the virus as an alien invader, these vaccines will teach recipients to recognize their specific cancer as to recognize an outsider.
DR Burton said they were beginning to see that it was “absolutely not the case” that mRNA technology could only be used to fight Covid.
“It can be applied to all kinds of disease areas,” he said, adding that Moderna is researching mRNA to “fight cancer, infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases, rare diseases.”
A sign marks the headquarters of the maker of the modern coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine in Cambridge, Massachusetts
“We have studies in all these areas and they have all shown great promise,” said Dr. Burton.
Human trials of such cancer vaccines are still a long way off – although rival BioNTech, which created the blueprint for Pfizer’s Covid vaccine, announced last year that it had signed a deal with the NHS to provide personalized mRNA to 10,000 by 2030 to deliver patients -To offer cancer treatments. .
When personalized cancer vaccines become available, they are also likely to be expensive. The closest comparable technology currently on the market is a treatment called CAR-T therapy for certain types of leukemia and lymphoma.
CAR-T therapies typically cost six figures per patient.
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
