An Irish medical professor has said he is “very excited” over the news that cancer vaccines will be available by 2030.
The vaccine has been in development for over 20 years but has progressed rapidly thanks to technology used to implement Covid-19 vaccines. The husband and wife team behind the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci, are now redirecting their focus on cancer research after two challenging years of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.
Professor Seamus O’Reilly works on cancer trials at University Hospital Cork. He told Newstalk listeners that the vaccine will work by priming immune systems against cancer calls present in the body.
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He told Newstalk: “This technology pivoted to Covid due to the magnitude of the pandemic and it’s been hugely successful. We have already seen the benefits in society of vaccinating against cancer- in our communities, we’ve been vaccinating against HPV for over ten years now.”
He also stressed that vaccination would be a better alternative to current cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, in terms of quality of life. The vaccines would have a less toxic impact on patients compared to treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy, he argued.
However, he cautioned against the news being perceived as a cure-all for the disease. He warned that it will likely remain one of the leading causes of death in society for the foreseeable future. However, the vaccine could help provide patients with better quality of survival and also have a preventative impact.
The couple behind the vaccine have also been reluctant to say they have found a cure against cancer but have admitted to making important breakthroughs in their research. The cancer vaccine would likely imitate an mRNA one, which produces a virus’ genetic code. This is injected into the body to produce antigens, which allows the immune system to fight off disease.
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