Science reacted to the Covid-19 pandemic in an amazingly rapid way, by harnessing the promising and already-existing technology of mRNA vaccines. The genetically-engineered vaccines work by teaching our immune systems to fight an enemy it has never encountered before. Now that we know it works, mRNA technology can be used for other deadly diseases, like lung cancer.
Non-small cell lung cancer is the most common form of lung cancer, and a vaccine called BNT116 has gone into clinical trials for around 130 lung cancer patients in various stages of the disease in Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Turkey, the UK, and the US. The trial involves a massive number of injections over more than a year along with immunotherapy. The upside is that mRNA vaccines harness the body's own immune system to specifically target cancer cells without destroying healthy cells. Standard radiation and chemotherapy destroy both, leading to dangerous side effects. Another benefit to training the immune system is that cancer cells are less likely to ever come back. Read more on the new mRNA vaccine trials for lung cancer at the Guardian. -via Damn Interesting
(Image credit: National Cancer Institute)
