Bowel Cancer Jab Could Be The Latest Vaccine Advance

An argument made by some of those sceptical about the Covid vaccines was that if making one was so easy, why had there not been one for cancer? Those in the know were swift to explain why.

Part of the answer is that cancer is not one disease, nor something with one cause; for instance, ingesting carcinogenic substances (i.e. smoking) causes lung cancer, UV radiation leads to skin cancer, while the human Papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical cancer.

In the latter case, a vaccine is now available to fight the virus and prevent cancer from arising, but there may be more forms of cancer that vaccines could fight – and one is on trial now. It may increase life science sales of this and similar vaccines if successful.

The BBC reported on the case of Steven Brice, a bowel cancer patient who has been given a tailored vaccine at Torbay Hospital in Devon. He was originally diagnosed last year in a screening programme and successfully treated, but further tests showed he still had cancer DNA in his blood.

However, the new personalised vaccine, using his own DNA, has been devised as a means of reducing the chances of the cancer coming back.

Expressing optimism about the future, Mr Brice said: “Hopefully down the line this will be a case in the same scenario as smallpox which will be a thing of the past.”

If it is successful, this does not mean the new product will be mass-produced for widespread distribution in the manner of a large-scale vaccination programme like Covid or the annual flu jab, because each time it will need the addition of an individual’s DNA. But the basic product will remain.

Commenting to the broadcaster, the research information manager at Cancer Research UK, Dr Claire Bromley, noted that cancer is “incredibly complex” and there is “never going to be one vaccine to treat cancer”.

However, what this development may do, alongside other vaccines to treat viral-related cancers like that of the cervix, is increase the number of life-saving treatments that could prevent cancer deaths in future.