GSK said it will spend £50 million on a project with Oxford University To investigate whether vaccines can be used to prevent some cancers.
The FTSE 100 Pharmaceutical company said the GSK-Oxford Cancer Provention Program will investigate how preadipocytes develop.
Scientists are increasingly optimistic about Possibility of cancer vaccineswhich aims to help the patient’s immune system fight cancer. Some vaccines It has already been tested on patientsincluding in the United Kingdom, and interventions are tailored to individual tumors.
GSK said its investment in research over at least three years builds on Oxford’s expertise in identifying and sequencing neoantigens, described as “tumor-specific proteins that prompt the immune system to recognize cancer.” This could help with vaccines or other forms of medication to target precancerous cells, which can progress into cancer over the course of years or even decades.
“Cancer doesn’t come from anywhere,” Sarah Blagden, professor of experimental oncology at Oxford, said in an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “Cancers can take up to 20 years, sometimes longer, to develop. Normal cells transition to become cancerous. At that point, most cancers are invisible.
“The purpose of the vaccine is not to vaccinate against established cancer, but actually to vaccinate against pre-cancer.”
Blagden will lead the research program alongside GSK’s Timothy Clay and Ramon Kemp.
Many cancer vaccines are already undergoing testing, because new technology allows scientists to sequence the genome of a tumor to find genetic mutations that produce the new tools. The vaccine will then introduce the new, tailored tools into the body, stimulating the immune system to seek out and destroy those cells.
Individual vaccines can be made using mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid), the molecules responsible for converting DNA sequences into proteins. Vaccines that use mRNA have come Its prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The process of quickly sequencing genomes and then producing vaccines remains expensive, but scientists have been encouraged by early results in some tests, starting with cancer and including Some lung cancersbrain, ovaries, leather And the pancreas, according to the economist Saleh. It could also prove to be a lucrative business for pharmaceutical companies investigating it, including Moderna, Merck, Biontech and GSK.
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Erin Tracey, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, said the research program “will unite experts in clinical trials, immunopathology, vaccines and advance research from across the university with the aim of ‘unlocking the potential of cancer vaccines, and bringing hope to patients around the world’.”
Peter Kyle, Minister for Science and Technology, said the government wanted to “transform what is possible when it comes to diagnosing and treating this disease”.
He added: “Cancer is a disease that has brought pain and grief to every family in the country, including my own.”
