Cancer vaccines may save lives

Could vaccines turn life-threatening cancers into a thing of the past? Early research suggests that mRNA cancer vaccines, often customized specifically for individual patients, have the potential to significantly improve survival rates for certain cancers. So how do these potentially life-saving cancer vaccines work?

Vaccines work by teaching the body how to identify and fight microbes, according to cancer.gov. Traditionally, vaccines have targeted viruses, tiny and not-quite-living microbes that don’t respond to antibiotics. Viral vaccines don’t target the virus itself directly and instead teach the immune system how to identify and attack specific viruses.

For some time now, researchers at various universities, companies, and other organizations have been searching for a mechanism to teach the body how to more effectively find and destroy cancer cells. Because cancer is an internal process, the immune system struggles to fully differentiate between healthy cells and cancer cells, which allows the cells to spread unchecked. While some cells in the immune system can identify the mutated cells, they are usually overwhelmed.

mRNA cancer vaccines may turn the tide, according to AJMC.com. While traditional vaccines typically use a whole virus or similar microbe, mRNA vaccines use smaller proteins to teach immune cells how to spot proteins present in cancer cells or on a virus’s outer coating. When the immune system can quickly identify rogue cells and viruses, it’s much easier to destroy them.

Meanwhile, traditional cancer treatments often target fast-growing cells. Chemotherapy, for example, kills cells as they split into two. Since cancer cells multiply more rapidly than healthy cells, chemotherapy tends to kill off cancer cells more quickly than healthy cells. Still, chemo will kill many healthy cells and damage the body. Cancer vaccines, however, may ultimately prove both effective and much easier on patients.