The finding could “revolutionise” cancer care
Covid-19 vaccines can “turbo-charge” a specific type of cancer treatment that utilises the immune system to attack cancer cells, according to research. Academics have suggested that this discovery, if confirmed in broader studies, could “revolutionise” cancer care.
A recent study, published in the journal Nature, discovered that patients with lung or skin cancer who received an mRNA Covid jab within 100 days of starting immunotherapy had significantly longer survival rates than those who did not receive the vaccine.
The researchers aimed to determine whether receiving an mRNA Covid jab would impact immunotherapy, a form of cancer treatment designed to aid the immune system in recognising and attacking cancer cells. Specifically, they examined patients undergoing a type of immunotherapy known as a checkpoint inhibitor, which works by activating the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells.
Initial studies in mice demonstrated that a “non-specific” mRNA vaccine, when combined with checkpoint inhibitors, elicited a robust “anti-tumour” response. Following this discovery, they proceeded to analyse data on cancer patients who had been administered checkpoint inhibitors and had received a Covid mRNA jab in the 100 days prior to starting the immunotherapy.
Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines function by instructing the body to produce a small part of the virus, enabling the body to initiate an immune system response and preparing it to attack the actual virus upon contact. The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid jabs utilise this type of vaccine technology.
A team of researchers, spearheaded by experts from the University of Florida (UF) and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre, analysed data on more than 1,000 US cancer patients with either stage 3 or stage 4 cancer. These patients were diagnosed with either non-small cell lung cancer or metastatic melanoma and received treatment at MD Anderson between 2019 and 2023.
For lung cancer patients, the researchers examined data on 180 patients who had been administered a Covid-19 jab within 100 days of commencing treatment and compared their outcomes to 704 who had not. All of these patients underwent immunotherapy.
They discovered that receiving the vaccine was associated with nearly doubling the average survival – from 20.6 months to 37.3 months. Some 43 skin cancer patients were given a vaccine within 100 days of starting immunotherapy, while 167 patients did not.
Those who received the jab survived for an average of 30 to 40 months compared with an average of 26.7 months among patients who did not. In the lab, researchers combined Covid mRNA jabs with immunotherapy and found that they could transform unresponsive cancers into responsive ones and halt tumour growth.
Academics stated that this discovery marks a step forward towards finding a universal cancer vaccine to enhance the effects of immunotherapy.
Co-senior author of the study, Professor Elias Sayour, a paediatric oncologist and professor of paediatric oncology research, stated: “The implications are extraordinary – this could revolutionise the entire field of oncologic care. We could design an even better nonspecific vaccine to mobilise and reset the immune response, in a way that could essentially be a universal, off-the-shelf cancer vaccine for all cancer patients.”
He further added: “If this can double what we’re achieving currently, or even incrementally – 5 per cent, 10 per cent – that means a lot to those patients, especially if this can be leveraged across different cancers for different patients.”
Researchers are now eager to initiate a large clinical trial across cancer centres in the US to validate their findings.
Dr Duane Mitchell, of the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute, commented: “Although not yet proven to be causal, this is the type of treatment benefit that we strive for and hope to see with therapeutic interventions – but rarely do. I think the urgency and importance of doing the confirmatory work can’t be overstated.”
Reflecting on the study, Professor Andrew Beggs, a senior clinical fellow and consultant colorectal surgeon from the University of Birmingham, remarked: “The authors looked to understand the effects of the receipt of a SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine and the response to a type of treatment called immunotherapy. Immunotherapy stimulates the body to attack the tumour as ‘foreign’ and their research showed that being given a vaccine within 100 days of the immunotherapy turbo-charged their response to treatment, giving much longer survival from their cancer.”
He added: “They replicated this finding in animal models, showing it is likely to be genuine, and not an effect caused by another phenomenon, such as the protection from serious respiratory illness from Covid infection.”
Dr Lennard Lee, associate professor in cancer vaccines from the University of Oxford, commented: “This is an intriguing finding, yet we should be cautious before drawing conclusions. Patients who are well enough to receive a vaccine are often those already doing better, which makes it hard to separate cause from coincidence. Only a randomised trial can tell us whether the vaccine itself drives the effect.”
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