Hopes for a cancer vaccine by 2030

The team behind one of the Covid-19 medicines has said it might have a vaccine for cancer by 2030. Cancer is a broad term for a collection of diseases that are caused by oddly behaving cells growing out of control. A vaccine is a medicine that helps your body fight disease using its own defences.

The founders of Biontech say the same technology they used for their Covid-19 vaccine could be used to help the body’s immune system fight cancer cells. Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, the husband-and-wife team who founded Biontech, were working on treatments for cancer before the coronavirus pandemic struck. Most vaccines contain weakened versions of diseases, which are injected into the body. This triggers the person’s immune system to produce antibodies (proteins that attack foreign and dangerous substances in the body). If they then encounter a stronger version of the disease in the future, their body will know how to fight it.

Şahin and Türeci’s jab works differently. It’s an MRNA vaccine, which teaches the body to make “spike proteins” like the ones on a coronavirus particle. These chemicals act as “wanted posters”, so that the body’s defences know what to seek out. Biontech wants to use the same method to teach the body to fight cancer, and hopes that a vaccine could be available by the end of this decade. However, Türeci is urging caution. “As scientists, we are always hesitant to say we will have a cure for cancer,” she told the BBC. “We have a number of breakthroughs and we will continue to work on them.”

Vaccines are injected into the body.