Early Research Suggests mRNA Shots Could Help Patients Live Longer
New research presented Sunday at the European Society for Medical Oncology conference in Berlin suggests that mRNA Covid vaccines may enhance the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy — potentially helping patients live significantly longer.
The study, led by researchers from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, found that cancer patients who received an mRNA Covid vaccine within 100 days before beginning immunotherapy nearly doubled their median survival time compared with those who did not get vaccinated. The findings are still early and have not yet undergone a Phase 3 clinical trial, but oncologists say the implications are striking.
“I am cautiously optimistic,” said Dr. Stephanie Dougan, an associate professor of cancer immunology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who was not involved in the research. “There is a scientific logic to why this could work.”
Vaccines That “Superdrive” the Immune System
The study’s co-lead author, Dr. Adam Grippin, explained that the mRNA Covid vaccines may help prime the immune system, making it more responsive to immunotherapy drugs — treatments that stimulate the body to identify and destroy cancer cells.
Of more than 1,000 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer treated with immunotherapy between 2019 and 2023, those who received an mRNA Covid vaccine lived a median of three years, compared with just over 1.5 years for unvaccinated patients. Among patients with metastatic melanoma, vaccinated individuals also showed significantly better survival, with some still alive more than three years after treatment began.
In laboratory tests on mice, the team observed a similar response. “It superdrives the immune system against tumors,” Grippin said, suggesting that the vaccines may create a “beacon” that enhances immune recognition of cancer cells.
A Possible “Goldilocks Zone” for Immune Activation
Only about 20% of patients currently benefit from immunotherapy, leaving researchers searching for ways to increase its success rate. Past efforts to stimulate the immune system have often gone too far or not far enough — either triggering damaging inflammation or failing to produce a sufficient response.
According to Dougan, mRNA vaccines might strike the right balance. “Maybe we just needed something that was medium-strong, and this could potentially be it,” she said, while emphasizing that further research is essential to confirm the findings and understand how vaccines interact with tumor biology.
Grippin and his team are now preparing to launch a Phase 3 clinical trial to validate their results in a larger population and across different types of cancer.
Next Steps and Broader Implications
mRNA vaccine technology is already being explored in oncology, with several clinical trials underway for personalized cancer vaccines designed to target unique tumor mutations. Others aim at common cancer genes, including those linked to pancreatic and melanoma tumors.
If confirmed, the new findings could reshape how doctors approach immunotherapy — potentially combining existing mRNA vaccines with cancer treatments to improve outcomes for patients with advanced disease. As Dougan noted, “There is growing excitement around the possibility that something designed for infectious disease might also unlock new frontiers in cancer therapy.”