Are we close to a cancer vaccine?

我们离癌症疫苗很近了吗?

The Inquiry

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2025-01-07

22 分钟
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Cancer is a disease that will affect 1 in 5 people in our lifetime, and it’s estimated that around 20 million people worldwide will be diagnosed with some form of cancer in 2025. But how might a vaccine help in the treatment of cancer? Numerous trials began testing the viability of cancer vaccines in 2024, including one for Melanoma and another for Lung Cancer. With all the promise that these new cancer vaccine trials bring for cancer patients, we explore the different ways in which vaccines could work within the body, and how the time at which future vaccines are administered may vary according to the cancers they are targeting. This week on the Inquiry we’re asking: Are we close to a cancer vaccine? Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Matt Toulson Researcher: Katie Morgan Editor: Tara McDermott Studio Director: Craig Boardman Contributors: Meredith McKean, director of Melanoma and Skin Cancer Research for Sarah Cannon Research Institute at Tennessee Oncology Samra Turajlic, Chief Investigator of translational studies into melanoma and kidney cancer at the Francis Crick Institute and Professor at the Institute of Cancer Research Eduardo Vilar-Sanchez, professor in the department of Clinical Cancer Prevention at The University of Texas Anderson Cancer Center Patrick Ott, Clinical Director at Melanoma Disease Center at the Dana-Farber Institute
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  • This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the uk Available now on the documentary from the BBC World Service.

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  • Listen now by searching for the documentary wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

  • Welcome to the Inquiry with me, Tania Beckett from the BBC World Service.

  • One question for expert witnesses and an answer.

  • It's a disease that will affect one in five people in our lifetime and the number is growing.

  • In fact, there are estimates that in 2025, around 20 million people worldwide will be DIA with some form of cancer.

  • But just as the world of medicine has tackled many other diseases with the use of vaccines, it's becoming increasingly hopeful that they could also become a means to treat cancer.

  • And moves are already afoot.

  • We'll return to our main story, which is about a groundbreaking new vaccine for melanoma skin cancer, which is being trialled in the UK.

  • In April 2024, a melanoma jab was trialled on patients in the UK.

  • A lung cancer vaccine is being trialled across seven countries.

  • And the University of Florida has developed a cancer vaccine that reprograms the immune system to attack the most common type of brain cancer.

  • This sudden rush of new treatments can be traced back to a new technology rolled out during the pandemic, namely a groundbreaking type of vaccine which is much more agile than traditional vaccine technology and is called mRNA.

  • So with all the promise that these new cancer vaccine trials bring for cancer patients, this week on the inquiry we're asking, are we close to a cancer vaccine?

  • Part 1 Understanding cancer.

  • If we are to understand why cancer could in the future be treated with a vaccine, we first need to examine what the disease is and, and how it affects the body.

  • Our first expert witness is Meredith McCain, Director of Melanoma and skin cancer research at Sarah Cannon Research Institute in the usa.