The most widely used COVID-19 vaccines may offer a surprise benefit for some cancer patients—revving up their immune systems to help fight tumors, the AP reports. People with advanced lung or skin cancer who were taking certain immunotherapy drugs lived substantially longer if they also got a Pfizer or Moderna shot within 100 days of starting treatment, according to preliminary research being reported Wednesday in the journal Nature. And it had nothing to do with virus infections. Instead, the molecule that powers those specific vaccines, mRNA, appears to help the immune system respond better to the cutting-edge cancer treatment, concluded researchers from the University of Florida and the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
The vaccine "acts like a siren to activate immune cells throughout the body," said lead researcher Dr. Adam Grippin of MD Anderson. "We're sensitizing immune-resistant tumors to immune therapy." The research team found its results so promising that it's preparing a more rigorous study to see if mRNA coronavirus vaccines should be paired with cancer drugs called checkpoint inhibitors—an interim step while it designs new mRNA vaccines for use in cancer.
Grippin and his Florida colleagues had been developing personalized mRNA cancer vaccines when they realized that even one created without a specific target appeared to spur similar immune activity against cancer. Grippin wondered if the already widely available mRNA coronavirus shots might also have some effect, too. So the team analyzed records of nearly 1,000 advanced cancer patients undergoing checkpoint inhibitor treatment at MD Anderson—comparing those who happened to get a Pfizer or Moderna shot with those who didn't.
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Vaccinated lung cancer patients were nearly twice as likely to be alive three years after beginning cancer treatment as the unvaccinated patients. Among melanoma patients, median survival was significantly longer for vaccinated patients—but exactly how much isn't clear, as some of that group were still alive when the data was analyzed. Non-mRNA vaccines such as flu shots didn't make a difference.