Russia develops own cancer vaccine, know how it works

In a development that can prove to be the biggest achievement of medical science, Russia has developed its own cancer vaccine, the government said.  

In an official announcement the Russian Health Ministry said that a cancer vaccine will be launched in 2025 and will be administered to patients for free. 

“Russia has developed its own mRNA vaccine against cancer, which will be distributed to patients free of charge,” said Andrey Kaprin, General Director of the Radiology Medical Research Center of the Russian Ministry of Health.   

Alexander Gintsburg, Director of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology said, “The vaccine’s pre-clinical trials had shown that it suppresses tumor development and potential metastases.” 

The cancer vaccine is not a preventive measure for the public but has been developed to treat cancer patients. Notably, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a claim early this year that Russia was “very close to creating cancer vaccines and next-generation immunomodulatory drugs.”  

Gintsburg told reporters during vaccination trials that the application of artificial neural networks might reduce the amount of time needed to compute a customized cancer vaccine, which is now a time-consuming procedure, to less than an hour. 

However, it is not yet known which type of cancers or all, the vaccine will treat, or in which phases the vaccine will be out. However, the vaccine is expected to be personalized for individual patients, aligning with similar developments in cancer treatments seen in Western countries. 

How vaccines work: 

Vaccines perform the task of training immune system in our body to defend it in case of foreign elements or abnormal cells which are threatening.  There are two types of cancer vaccines: Preventive Cancer Vaccines and Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines. Therapeutic cancer vaccines have recently shown positive development by stimulating de novo T cell responses that target tumor antigens, including tumor-associated and tumor-specific antigens, therapeutic cancer vaccines have recently showed promise.