Cancer is a B**** but fortunately, we might have a way to get rid of it soon.
Russia has developed a mRNA vaccine against cancer and plans to distribute it to Russian cancer patients free of charge.
The General Director of the Radiology Medical Research Center of the Russian Ministry of Health Andrey Kaprin announced this on Radio Rossiya.
According to TASS, the vaccine was developed in collaboration with several research centres and will be launched in general circulation in early 2025.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin hinted at the creation of a cancer vaccine in February this year during a speech at a forum on future technologies in Moscow.
In the vaccine’s pre-clinical trials, Director of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology Alexander Gintsburg said the vaccine suppresses tumour growth and stops cancer from spreading.
However, which cancers the vaccine is supposed to treat are not shared. The vaccine’s effectiveness and name were not shared either.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said cancer is a major leading cause of death globally, accounting for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020. If Russia’s cancer vaccine is truly effective, it could save many lives worldwide.
Is a cancer vaccine possible?
Currently, we have some vaccines that are preventing different types of cancer in the market.
There are six vaccines against human papillomaviruses (HPV), such as Gardasil, to help prevent cervical cancer and vaccines against hepatitis B (HBV) like Heplisav-B, which can help prevent liver cancer.
In October 2024, researchers from the University of Oxford in the UK were given funding to create the world’s first vaccine to prevent ovarian cancer. The vaccine named OvarianVax works by teaching the immune system to attack the earliest stages of ovarian cancer.
Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Merck & Co are developing an experimental cancer vaccine. A mid-stage study showed that the experimental vaccine could cut the chance of recurrence or death from melanoma, a deadly skin cancer, by half after three years of treatment.
Last year, the UK government signed an agreement with Germany-based BioNTech to launch clinical trials to provide personalised cancer treatments to 10,000 patients by 2030.
