Cancer vaccine to boost survival rates

A CANCER vaccine revolution will see thousands of NHS patients receive cutting-edge treatments personalised to their tumours.

- Hanna Geissler 

Doctors hope the "game-changing" scheme will boost cure rates.

Given after surgery and chemotherapy, the vaccines aim to destroy any lingering tumour cells, slashing the risk of the disease returning.

Health chiefs will today announce the opening of the Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad, a "matchmaking service" connecting eligible patients with clinical trials.

Dad-of-four Elliot Pfebve, 55, was the first person to receive an experimental bowel cancer vaccine in March after joining an NHS study.

He said: "Having been through the difficulty of diagnosis and debilitating chemotherapy, it felt wonderful to take part in something that could lead to a new way of treating cancer.

"If others can benefit from what the trial might discover, that's great too."

Elliot, a lecturer at Coventry University, was diagnosed with colon cancer in May 2023 following a routine health check with his GP.

After surgery to remove the tumour and 30cm of his large intestine, he was referred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham where he had chemotherapy and joined the study.

The bowel cancer vaccine he is taking is jointly developed by pharma companies BioNTech and Genentech, part of the Roche Group. It harnesses the same mRNA technology used in the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid jab.

After a tumour is removed, its genetic make-up is analysed to identify proteins specific to the cancer.