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Patients battling advanced lung or skin cancer who received a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine within 100 days of starting their cancer treatment showed significantly improved survival rates, according to a recent study by U.S. researchers. The findings revealed that these patients lived twice as long compared to those who did not receive the vaccine within this timeframe.
Experts are optimistic that if these promising results can be consistently replicated, mRNA vaccines could emerge as a highly effective and innovative cancer treatment strategy.
University of Queensland Associate Professor Seth Cheetham, although not part of the study, provided insights into the potential mechanism behind these findings. He noted that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines operate similarly to certain cancer therapies by enabling the immune system to recognize and combat cancer cells.
“Many cancer treatments involve immune checkpoint inhibitors, which work by preventing cancer cells from evading the immune system,” Cheetham explained. “mRNA vaccines have the ability to rapidly activate the immune system.”
“mRNA vaccines quickly ‘wake up’ the immune system.
“Within a day, blood from human volunteers given a COVID mRNA vaccine displayed a sharp rise in interferon, a natural antiviral alarm, and immune cells switched into a more alert state.”
Cancer vaccines are in development and have shown some positive results, but they are expensive and have logistical challenges of their own.
However, COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are cheaper and more widely available, having already been used globally during the coronavirus pandemic.
Cheetham cautioned further trials and studies were required, but said the latest developments were promising.
“If these confirmatory trials are successful, doctors may soon have an unexpected powerful new option for treating cancer,” he said.