Thousands to trial personalised cancer vaccines

Dr Victoria Kunene, trial principal investigator from Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, told the BBC: “I think this is a new era. The science behind this makes sense.

“My hope is this will become the standard of care. It makes sense that we can have something that can help patients reduce their risk of cancer recurrence.”

But it is still early days, and while there is great optimism about the potential for mRNA cancer treatment vaccines, they remain in the experimental stage and are only available as part of clinical trials.

More than 200 patients in the UK, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Sweden will be recruited to the trial and will receive up to 15 doses of the personalised vaccine.

The study is not due to be completed until 2027.

One hope is that the vaccines will produce fewer side effects than conventional chemotherapy.

Elliot said that apart from a mild fever following the injection, he had no other issues with the vaccine.

Amanda Pritchard, NHS England chief executive, said: “Seeing Elliot receive his first treatment as part of the Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad is a landmark moment for patients and the health service as we seek to develop better and more effective ways to stop this disease.

Prof Peter Johnson, NHS national clinical director for cancer at the NHS, said: “We know that even after a successful operation, cancers can sometimes return because a few cancer cells are left in the body, but using a vaccine to target those remaining cells may be a way to stop this happening.”

Last month, a patient in London received a personalised mRNA vaccine against melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

That jab was created by Moderna, and used the same technology as in their Covid jabs.

Moderna and BioNTech have begun or are planning trials of mRNA vaccines against a range of tumour types including lung, breast and bladder cancer.