Cancer vaccine being trialled by NHS may herald ‘dawn of a new age’ of treatments

A new mRNA cancer vaccine being trialled in the UK could herald the “dawn of a new age” of treatments for the disease, a scientist has suggested.

With development of the emerging vaccine technology having been turbocharged by the coronavirus pandemic, British patients are among a global cohort enlisted to trial the safety and efficacy of a vaccine experts hope could lead to a new generation of “off-the-shelf” cancer therapies.

The vaccine – named mRNA-4359 and produced by Moderna – is aimed at people with advanced melanoma, lung cancer and other solid tumour cancers.

While in some cases, vaccines are created specifically for each individual patient in laboratories using their own genetic information, the vaccine being trialled by British patients is among those targeted more broadly at specific types of cancer, which can be produced much more quickly and easily.

A man from Surrey with malignant melanoma skin cancer that is not responding to treatment was the first UK person to receive the vaccine at Hammersmith Hospital in late October as part of the trial arm run by Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

“I had a different immunotherapy, I had radiotherapy, the only thing I didn’t have was chemotherapy. So, the options were either do nothing and wait, or get involved and do something,” said the 81-year-old, who does not wish to be named.

“I’m extremely grateful to the hospitals and the individuals that are running these trials. Somehow we have to change the fact that one in every two people get cancer at some point, and we have to make the odds better.”

During the trial, the vaccine will be tested alone and in combination with an existing drug pembrolizumab, which is an approved immunotherapy treatment, also known as Keytruda.