Researchers launch efforts to develop lung cancer vaccine

Courtesy of Yonhap News

Researchers are developing a vaccine to prevent lung cancer using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, which enabled the development of the Covid-19 vaccine. Clinical trials for this vaccine have already begun in seven countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.

With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recent approval of the lung cancer treatment drug Leclaza, there is growing optimism about new opportunities in the fight against lung cancer.

According to the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) on Tuesday, clinical trials recently began for mRNA-based lung cancer vaccine BNT116, which German biotech company BioNTech developed. The first patient in the United Kingdom received the vaccine candidate, heralding the beginning of trials across 34 institutions in seven countries forming the world’s first clinical trial of an mRNA vaccine targeting lung cancer.

The vaccine is based on mRNA technology. Just as mRNA vaccines were crucial to the rapid development of Covid-19 vaccines, mRNA-based cancer vaccines work by prompting the body to produce abnormal proteins generated by cancer cells. The immune cells in the body then create antibodies to respond to these proteins, which in turn kill the cancer cells.

It is estimated that 1.8 million people worldwide die from lung cancer every year, often due to frequent recurrences and metastasis despite treatment. Preventing recurrence is thus crucial to improving survival rates for lung cancer patients. BNT116 is designed to prevent recurrences by enhancing the body’s immune response to cancer cells, in turn significantly reducing the risk of metastasis or recurrence. Unlike chemotherapy, it does not affect healthy cells.

A total of 130 participants, including those with early-stage, late-stage, and recurrent lung cancer, will take part in the clinical trial. They will receive the vaccine continuously for 6 weeks and then every 3 weeks for 54 weeks.