TESTING MIRACLE LUNG CANCER VAX
AGROUNDBREAKING lung cancer vaccine is currently in development — and researchers believe it has the potential to prevent up to 90 percent of all cases!
Dubbed LungVax, the jab is being formulated for high-risk folks by scientists at the University of Oxford, the Francis Crick Institute and University College London.
Lung cancer cells differ from healthy tissue due to the presence of proteins called neoantigens, which emerge because of disease-causing DNA mutations.
LungVax uses technology similar to Oxford/AstraZeneca’s successful COVID-19 vaccine. The treatment will carry genetic material to train the body’s immune system to identify neoantigens at their earliest stages — and eliminate the malignancies before they become life-threatening. Professor Tim Elliott, lead researcher at the University of Oxford, explains, “Cancer is a disease of our own bodies, and it’s hard for the immune system to distinguish between what’s normal and what’s cancer.
“Getting the immune system to recognize and attack cancer is one of the biggest challenges in cancer research today.”
Only 5 percent of advancedstage lung cancer patients are still alive five years or more after diagnosis, and more than 130,000 Americans die annually from the disease.
The injection is currently slated for lab tests to prove it can trigger an appropriate immune response. If successful, the vax will move straight into a clinical trial with human subjects.
University College London’s Professor Mariam JamalHanjani adds, “LungVax will not replace stopping smoking as the best way to reduce your risk of lung cancer. But it could offer a viable route to preventing some of the earliest stage cancers from emerging in the first place.”