Russia plans to provide cancer vaccines for free

Information is provided by the news agency Tass Interview with Mr. Andrey Kaprin, General Director of the Center for Radiological Medical Research under the Russian Ministry of Health, on December 15. Information about distribution channels and specific time has not been disclosed.

The above vaccine is prepared using mRNA technology, developed by three units, including the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, PA Herzen Moscow Cancer Research Institute, and the National Medical Research Center. NN Blokhina. Unlike vaccines to prevent infectious diseases, cancer vaccines are used to treat and train the immune system to attack specific tumors.

In September, the vaccine completed the pre-clinical research stages and moved to testing on patients. The research team plans to test the vaccine on patients with melanoma and small cell lung cancer, with the injection personalized for each patient. The experimental procedure will be different from the classic to facilitate data analysis.

Besides the mRNA vaccine, the Center for Radiological Medicine Research has a second project, called an anti-cancer vaccine. The vaccine is prepared based on a combination of four viruses that do not cause disease but have the ability to destroy malignant cells and activate the patient’s anti-tumor immunity. Currently, the vaccine has passed the pre-clinical research cycle, showing the effect of slowing down the growth and then destroying tumors. Clinical trials and patient recruitment will begin in late 2024 to early 2025.

Cancer has become a constant obsession of many people and many countries. According to the World Health Organization, cancer is the second leading cause of death globally, causing an estimated 9.6 million deaths in 2018. The burden of cancer increases every year globally, affecting severe physical, emotional and financial impacts on individuals, families, communities and healthcare systems.

In addition to the Russian vaccine, five other cancer prevention candidates in the world are being researched and tested. Among them, BNT116 is produced by BioNTech, using mRNA technology similar to the Covid-19 vaccine being clinically tested in the UK, US, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain, and Turkey.