SCIENCE
Expect cancer vaccine by 2030, say Covid pioneers
Couple behind BioNTech jab believe breakthrough is in our grasp
, Health Editor
Monday October 17 2022, 12.01am, The Times
Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci founded BioNTech largely to work on cancer
BERND VON JUTRCZENKA
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Vaccines to fight cancer could be widely available before 2030, the husband and wife team behind one of the most successful Covid-19 jabs has said.
Lessons learnt in the pandemic will accelerate cancer treatments based on mRNA technology, Professor Ugur Sahin and Professor Ozlem Tureci said.
The couple co-founded BioNTech in Mainz, Germany, in 2008, to work principally on cancer. When the pandemic started, they changed focus to create a vaccine, working with the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.
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Their vaccine uses mRNA to give the body a blueprint of the coronavirusâs spike protein. This tells cells to make copies of the protein, which teach the immune system to recognise and fight it.
Tureci said in an interview on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC: âWhat we have developed over decades for cancer vaccine development has been the tailwind for developing the Covid-19 vaccine, and now the Covid-19 vaccine and our experience in developing it gives back to our cancer work.â She said that they had learnt how to manufacture vaccines better and faster, as well as how the immune system reacted to mRNA âin a large number of peopleâ.
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She added that the developments had also helped regulators to learn about mRNA vaccines and how to deal with them, adding: âThis will definitely accelerate also our cancer vaccine.â
Sahin, asked when cancer vaccines might be widely available, said it would be âbefore 2030â.
Tureci said: âWe feel that a cure for cancer or to changing cancer patientsâ lives is in our grasp.â Scientists tended to show humility, she said, âbecause nature and biology have so many secretsâ, but every step in trials or treatment helped them to âfind out more about what we are against and how to address thatâ.
She added: âWe are always hesitant to say we will have a cure for cancer. We have a number of breakthroughs and we will continue to work on them.â
In depth: Advances show tide is turning at last in the war on cancer
Cancer vaccines would work similarly to the Covid one, teaching a personâs body to make antigen molecules found on their tumour so it can recognise and clear out any cells left after surgery.
In June, BioNTech presented results from an early-stage trial in pancreatic cancer patients at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago. Half of 16 patients given the vaccine were cancer-free 18 months later. In the other eight there was no T-cell response, and six died or had their cancer return.
Pancreatic cancer is the deadliest common cancer, and 90 per cent of sufferers die within two years of diagnosis. A similar trial is under way in bowel cancer patients.
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Many companies have cancer vaccines in trial stages. Some are personalised, directly targeting proteins from a patientâs tumour, and others simply target antigens typically found on their kind of cancer.
In August, Moderna said it was suing BioNTech and Pfizer for patent infringement over the Covid-19 vaccine. Sahin said: âOur innovations are original . . . of course we will fight for our intellectual property.â
Dr Sam Godfrey, of Cancer Research UK, said: âJust as science was our route out of the pandemic, science is our route to beating cancer. Weâre optimistic that, in the future, we will see mRNA technology and other exciting vaccine approaches giving doctors more treatment options to help beat cancer.â
A vaccine for cancer sounds a miraculous prospect, but it is closer to reality than you might think. We already use vaccines to tackle viruses known to cause cancer.
The HPV vaccine protects against the human papillomavirus, known to cause cervical cancer and others. The hepatitis B vaccine protects against a virus that can cause liver cancer.
The next generation of cancer vaccines aim to inoculate people who have already had cancer against the disease returning.
There are a variety of approaches in development. In BioNTechâs case, the vaccine would use mRNA to teach the body to recognise antigens, or chemical markers, found on that personâs tumour. Should any tumour cells be left in the body after the tumour is removed, the immune system should recognise and destroy them.
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Other companies have vaccine candidates that take a less personalised approach, teaching the body to detect and attack antigens typically found on tumours, rather than those on the patientsâ own specific tumour.
There are hurdles to overcome â for instance, the fact that cancer cells suppress the immune system, and some traditional cancer treatments do likewise. This can make it harder to rely on the immune system to âlearnâ from the vaccine and fight the cancer.
However, three years ago the idea of producing a vaccine against a novel virus in a matter of months felt close to fantasy. It would not be madness to bet on scientists coming through again.