An 81-year-old man from Surrey became the first patient in the U.K. to receive a new "vaccine" designed to treat solid-tumor cancers, such as the skin cancer melanoma.
Therapeutic cancer vaccines act as a kind of immunotherapy, meaning they help train the immune system to fight cancer cells. They're different from vaccines that prevent cancer, such as the HPV vaccine that's incredibly effective at preventing cervical cancer. In the U.S., there are a handful of therapeutic cancer vaccines approved for melanoma, prostate cancer and bladder cancer.
