The mRNA vaccine that helped curb the COVID‑19 pandemic may now help patients with lung or skin cancer survive longer, researchers say.
A team from the University of Florida and the University of Texas shared preliminary data at the 2025 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Berlin. They studied more than 1,000 patients with advanced non‑small cell lung cancer or metastatic melanoma who were receiving standard immunotherapy drugs. Patients who got an mRNA COVID‑19 shot within 100 days of starting treatment lived significantly longer than those who did not.
The findings are still early, but the researchers plan a randomized clinical trial to confirm the results. If the trial confirms the benefit, the discovery could change how doctors treat cancer worldwide.
Senior researcher Dr. Elias Sayour, a pediatric oncologist at the University of Florida, called the study a “defining moment” in the decade‑long quest to use mRNA medicines to “wake up” the immune system against tumors. He added that a generic, off‑the‑shelf mRNA vaccine might become a universal cancer treatment.
The team also highlighted that the biggest survival advantage appeared in patients whose tumors were unlikely to spark a strong immune response based on genetic markers.
Dr. Jeff Coller, a leading mRNA scientist at Johns Hopkins University, said the study shows how powerful mRNA therapies can be for cancer treatment.
The data come from patient records at MD Anderson Cancer Center collected between 2019 and 2023. The researchers hope the upcoming clinical trial will verify that a COVID‑19 mRNA vaccine can boost cancer immunotherapy for broad use in oncology.
Source: ianslive
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