What if Covid-19 saved our lives? The global pandemic, as deadly as it was, had one merit: bringing messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines to the forefront. The latter, designed urgently, marked the arrival of a new technology in the global vaccination landscape. Researchers are wondering whether it would be possible to consider this technique to treat diseases other than Covid, and in particular cancer. This is the work undertaken by Leonard Lee, an oncologist at the British National Health Service (NHS) and medical director of the Ellison Institute of Technology in Oxford.
The doctor with the impressive CV is not his first mission. In the context of the coronavirus crisis, he carried out research which made it possible to rule out the hypothesis that chemotherapy was becoming dangerous for cancer patients. Thus, it has enabled patients around the world to continue their therapy. Today, Leonard Lee is leading several clinical trials, aimed at making cancer vaccines available, based on mRNA technology. In an interview with the Wired site, he hopes that they will eventually become “the positive point of the pandemic”.
Leonard Lee assures us: “Moving from mRNA Covid vaccines to mRNA cancer vaccines is simple”. According to him, the process is exactly similar: “same refrigerators, same protocol, same medication, just different patient.”
The messenger RNA revolution
But how do these vaccines work? mRNA, or messenger ribonucleic acid, is nothing more than a molecule. Once in the body, it gives the organism “instructions for making a harmless fragment of a cancerous protein”explains the doctor who popularizes it thus: “It’s a bit like giving a training manual to a security guard. The vaccine gives the immune system insight into what the cancer looks like, allowing it to know exactly who to watch for and eliminate.”
Nothing could be simpler, it seems. However, advances in cancer research are often very procedural and time-consuming. That being said, Leonard Lee found a way to act urgently. In 2022, he is creating the Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad, an NHS platform aimed at accelerating “access to personalized clinical trials of cancer vaccines”based on mRNA. “In the past, it took 20 years to bring a drug to market. Unfortunately, most cancer patients die beforehand.he laments.
Today, oncologists are increasing clinical trials. He is currently working on a vaccine aimed at preventing the recurrence of skin cancer after ablation. These tests are already completed, “one year early”he announces.
Leonard Lee will spend the next few months observing his test participants to determine whether the vaccine actually has a significant effect on them. He hopes to obtain the first results by the end of 2025, beginning of 2026. Enthusiastic, he announces: “If successful, we will have invented the first approved personalized mRNA vaccine, just five years after the first mRNA Covid vaccine was approved.” A success that could revolutionize cancer research.
