New Lung Cancer Vaccine Trials Begin

Human trials of the world's first mRNA vaccine for lung cancer have begun at 34 research centres in seven countries – the UK, the US, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain and Turkey, The Guardian reports .

According to the publication, the vaccine, developed by the German biotech company BioNTech, makes the body track down and kill cancer cells, and then prevents them from reappearing. The drug is intended to treat non-small cell lung cancer, one of the most common forms of the disease.

A total of 130 people diagnosed with lung cancer at various stages will take part in the trials. The first patient from the UK, 67-year-old Janusz Racz, who was diagnosed with cancer in May this year and referred for chemotherapy and radiotherapy, has already received a series of six injections.

"I am also a scientist, and I understand that the progress of science - especially in medicine - is that people agree to participate in such studies. This can be very useful for me, because this is a new technique, not available to other patients, which can help me get rid of cancer," said Raz.

Each dose of the vaccine contained a different strand of ribonucleic acid (RNA). The man will receive the vaccine every week for six weeks straight, and then every three weeks for a year.

The vaccine uses messenger RNA, which contains information about the primary structure of proteins. Like some coronavirus vaccines, it works by providing the immune system with tumor markers for non-small cell lung cancer to prepare the body to fight the cancer cells that produce those markers.

Scientists note that the purpose of using the vaccine is to enhance a person's immune response to cancer, while healthy cells remain intact, unlike chemotherapy.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, killing about 1.8 million people each year.

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