Could cancer vaccine trials be coming to Scotland? How do mRNA vaccines work?

A partnership between NHS England and BioNTech will see thousands of cancer patients be given personalised vaccines to stop their cancer from returning.

Thousands of cancer patients in England are set to be given access to personalised vaccines to prevent the disease from recurring.

The NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad (CVLP) will speed up access to messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) personalised cancer vaccine clinical trials for people who have been diagnosed with cancer.

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According to the NHS, it will “accelerate the development of cancer vaccines as a form of cancer treatment”.

The NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad (CVLP) will speed up access to messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) personalised cancer vaccine clinical trials for people who have been diagnosed with cancer.The NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad (CVLP) will speed up access to messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) personalised cancer vaccine clinical trials for people who have been diagnosed with cancer.
The NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad (CVLP) will speed up access to messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) personalised cancer vaccine clinical trials for people who have been diagnosed with cancer.

The CVLP is in partnership with German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, which was famously behind the first Covid-19 vaccine to be approved for use during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

How do the vaccines work?

When used to fight viruses, such as Covid-19, mRNA vaccines work by introducing a piece of mRNA that corresponds to a viral protein, usually a small piece of a protein found on the virus’s outer membrane. By using this mRNA, cells can produce the viral protein.

With personalised cancer vaccines, they are tailored to each person’s cancer and work by “training the immune system to recognise, destroy and prevent the spread of cancer cells”, according to NHS England.

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Prof Peter Johnson, NHS England’s national clinical director for cancer, said: “We know that even after a successful operation, cancers can sometimes return because a few cancer cells are left in the body, but using a vaccine to target those remaining cells may be a way to stop this happening.”

NHS England’s research team added: “Cancer vaccine trials are for people who have been diagnosed with cancer, either for the first time or for a returning cancer, who are undergoing treatment.

“For these people, cancer vaccines may reduce the risk of the cancer coming back in the future. Not everybody who has been diagnosed or is having treatment for cancer will be eligible for a trial.

“Patients identified as being suitable will be asked by the NHS team looking after them to give their consent to join the CVLP, to assess their eligibility and be put forward for clinical trials.”

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Will the trials come to Scotland?

The plan appears to be to extend the trials to other NHS boards in England, before expanding to elsewhere in the UK.

The aim of the trial is for the CVLP to “enable patients to access multiple trials running in different NHS trusts in other parts of the country, increasing access in an equitable way”.

The collaboration aims to provide up to 10,000 patients with personalised cancer treatments across the UK by 2030.

“The CVLP is being scaled up gradually, with a number of NHS Trusts set to come on board over the coming months,” according to NHS England,

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“It is expected that vaccines will be trialled for different types of cancers as the evidence is gathered, and trials become available.”

BioNTech isn’t the only company using Covid-era mRNA vaccines to tackle cancer. Last month, Moderna gave a patient in London a personalised mRNA vaccine to prevent the recurrence of melanoma, a type of skin cancer.

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