It would be a medical breakthrough
Scientists creating ‘cancer vaccine’ that could potentially stop the disease ’20 years early’
Cancer kills hundreds of thousands of people each year in the United States.
Last year, more than 2 million new cases of cancer were diagnosed in the United States, and 611,720 people died from the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Thousands of families are devastated by cancer every year in the US (Getty Images)
Scientists have gone beyond cures and created a new “anti-cancer drug” that could prevent cancer 20 years earlier.
The most common cancers are breast cancer, breast cancer, breast cancer, lung and lung cancer, breast cancer and blood cancer, breast cancer, breast cancer, blood-eating breast cancer, cancer, cancer, blood and kidney pelvic cancer, kidney cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, endometrial cancer, pancreatic cancer, leukemia, thyroid cancer, and cancer, according to the agency’s report.
But a breakthrough may be on the horizon as scientists at the University of Oxford in England move closer to developing a vaccine to prevent the disease. Scientists have announced plans to “achieve the impossible” by identifying changes in cells 20 years before cancer develops, according to the Mirror.
Cancer could be prevented with the vaccine some 20 years before it takes a hold (Getty Images)
Professor Sarah Blagdon, who is running the project with pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, told BBC News 4’s Today programme that the team will be looking at the “pre-cancerous” stage.
“Cancer doesn’t just happen,” she said.
“You think it takes a year or two for cancer to develop in your body, but we now know that it can actually take up to 20 years or longer – a change from the normal body to the brain.
“We actually know that most cancers are not visible at that time because they have gone through what we now call the pre-cancerous stage. So vaccines are designed to target pre-cancer stages rather than existing cancers.
The programme is part of the GSK-Oxford Cancer Immunoprevention Programme, and Oxford University already has a key role in vaccines (most notably the first vaccine against COVID-19) and identifying other cancers.
The news comes as there are already a handful of cancer vaccines being developed (Getty Images)
Scientists have identified a specific tumour that can be blocked by a vaccine to prevent cancer, but new research hopes to vaccinate patients before they develop cancer.
Professor Eileen Tracey, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, hailed the collaboration as a “step forward” for cancer research, expressing hope that the team could “unlock the potential of anti-cancer drugs and give hope to patients around the world.”
The researchers also said the university had already developed several cancer vaccines, including “LynchVax” for people with Lynch syndrome, a genetic condition that increases the risk of certain cancers. “As the immune system recognizes and fights early ovarian cancer, LungVax may prevent or delay the onset of ovarian cancer in people at high risk for certain types of cancer.