--- title: "Cancer Vaccines Are Suddenly Looking Extremely Promising" description: "With the help of mRNA technology proven effective during the COVID era, researchers are now closer than ever to creating cancer vaccines." date: "2025-03-15" modified: "2025-03-15" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/cancer-vaccines-mrna-future" categories: - "Cancer" - "Health & Medicine" - "Medical" tags: - "cancer" - "cancer vaccine" - "mRNA" - "vaccines" --- # Cancer Vaccines Are Suddenly Looking Extremely Promising ![With the help of mRNA technology proven effective during the COVID era, researchers are now closer than ever to creating cancer vaccines.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* With the help of mRNA technology proven effective during the COVID pandemic, researchers are now closer than ever to creating viable cancer vaccines. In an [interview with *Wired*](), Lennard Lee, an oncologist with the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) working on mRNA cancer vaccines, says he believes the groundbreaking research may prove to be a "silver lining" in the brutal COVID-19 pandemic. Before COVID, as Lee told the magazine, "cancer vaccines weren’t a proper field of research." "Pretty much every clinical trial had failed," the NHS oncologist said. "With the pandemic, however, we proved that mRNA vaccines were possible." As with mRNA COVID vaccines, the logistics of these potential new cancer inoculations work by "giving the body instructions" to fight troublesome cells, as Lee detailed, ultimately providing the immune system with a how-to manual on fighting cancer. "Going from mRNA Covid vaccines to mRNA cancer vaccines is straightforward," he told *Wired*. "Same fridges, same protocol, same drug, just a different patient." Instead of the one-size-fits-all approach taken with the widespread usage of mRNA COVID jabs, however, these new cancer vaccines will be personalized for each individual cancer patient. "In the current trials," Lee elucidated, "we do a biopsy of the patient, sequence the tissue, send it to the pharmaceutical company, and they design a personalized vaccine that’s bespoke to that patient’s cancer." "That vaccine is not suitable for anyone else," he recounted to the magazine. "It’s like science fiction." According to Lee, breakthrough cancer vaccine innovation came on the heels of the UK's rapid infrastructure-building during the COVID pandemic, which saw the country "open and deliver clinical trials" much faster than anyone would have expected. As COVID began winding down in 2022, Lee and his colleagues set up the Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad, a post-pandemic pet project that segued mRNA research into the arena of oncology. Not long after, "the dominoes started falling very quickly" as that project and others around the world rapidly progressed towards cancer vaccines. One NHS trial seeking to stop skin cancer from coming back was completed a year early — something that's "completely unheard of," Lee said. The NHS oncologist told *Wired* that the results from that trial should come out by the end of this year or the beginning of 2026. If it was successful, Lee told *Wired*, he and his team "will have invented the first approved personalized mRNA vaccine — an impressive feat indeed, especially this soon after the technology was deployed at scale during the pandemic. **More on the cancer vax:** [*Groundbreaking Ovarian Cancer Vaccine at an "Exciting" Moment, Lead Scientist Says*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()