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We are all familiar with vaccines. From the MMR vaccines we received as children, to the boosters we took during adolescence; we have all seen the seasonal flyers every year at our GP encouraging us to book a flu jab. Recently, the advent of COVID vaccines as well as other protective measures such as quarantine and social distancing helped curb the rising numbers of infected individuals during the pandemic. Vaccines have helped eradicate some diseases entirely – take smallpox as an example. But the vaccine has always been attributed as a measure against infectious disease – transmissible disease. Recent innovations in the scientific field are attempting to change this, by introducing a vaccine for the second leading cause of death in the world – cancer.
BioNTech has announced that trials for cancer vaccines could start in the UK by September 2023. The company aims to use the newly developed mRNA vaccines to combat cancer. As many as 10,000 cancer patients in the U.K. will be treated with personalized mRNA cancer treatments by 2030, BioNTech said in a statement, whether as part of a clinical trial testing the new therapies or as approved treatment.
They are being designed to work to train the patient’s own immune system to target and attack cancer cells, in a similar way to which mRNA vaccines were designed against COVID-19. The project is part of a broader partnership between BioNTech and the U.K. government, focussing on cancer immunotherapies and infectious disease vaccines. But how do mRNA vaccines work?
Unlike traditional vaccines, which inject part or all of a virus (or other pathogens) into the body to provoke an immune response, mRNA vaccines work by injecting genetic instructions and allowing the body to make part of the virus itself. The process is more flexible, simpler, and much faster than traditional methods. It can also be swiftly edited to adapt to real-world changes to the virus.
In the meantime, BioNTech has said that it will also set up a regional headquarters in London and a scientific research hub in Cambridge. This new field and development could revolutionise cancer therapy and treatments available for cancer patients.
