’Too good to be true’: Russia claims Cancer vaccine discovery, oncologists sceptical

Mangalore Today News Network

Russia, December 23, 2024: Russia has claimed to have achieved a significant advancement in cancer treatment by developing a vaccine aimed at treating cancer patients. If true, this would be the biggest medical breakthrough of 2024. The announcement said that “Russia has developed its own mRNA vaccine against cancer, it will be distributed to patients free of charge."

Experts in oncology – in India and globally – are simultaneously sceptical and excited. The reason is that although the announcement marks a significant breakthrough, it lacks the support of credible data and detailed information.

While cancer vaccines are already in development, breakthroughs remain elusive to date. Both Pfizer and Moderna, which made Covid19 m-RNA vaccine, are already working in this arena but are yet to report any major success.

While humans have been using hundreds of vaccines for protection against bacteria and viruses, developing vaccines for cancer is more challenging. This is because cancer cells look more like our normal, healthy cells, making it harder for the immune system to recognise them as threats. Also, every person’s tumour is unique, with its own distinct markers. Hence, all of this makes the development of effective cancer vaccines complicated requiring advanced and tailored methods.

What’s the news?

Alexander Gintsburg, Director of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, announced that pre-clinical trials have shown the vaccine’s effectiveness in suppressing tumour growth and preventing metastases. He said that the vaccine is scheduled for release in early 2025 and will be provided free of charge to Russian citizens.

Russians claimed that they are working on creating personalised cancer vaccines using artificial intelligence.

“Now it takes quite a long to build [personalised vaccines] because computing of how a vaccine, or customised mRNA, should look like uses matrix methods, in mathematical terms. We have involved the Ivannikov Institute which will rely on AI in doing this math, namely neural network computing where these procedures should take about half an hour to an hour," Gintsburg, who is Russia’s vaccine chief, told local media.

He explained that the use of artificial neural networks could bring down the duration of computing required to create a personalised cancer vaccine. The current process is lengthy and using AI could cut this time to “less than an hour".

On training the AI, Gintsburg said that an experimental base of 40,000 to 50,000 tumour sequences with identification of antigen compatibilities in a patient converted into protein or RNA will be needed. “This would help determine whether or not this combination can be used for the individual," he said.

How will the vaccine work?

While the Russian officials have not shared any details about the actual trial data, the efficacy of the vaccine or other details required to verify the claims, they only shared that they have developed an mRNA-based vaccine to treat cancer.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) is known as a powerful tool for treating various human diseases, especially malignant tumours, due to the extraordinary clinical outcomes of mRNA vaccines using lipid nanoparticle technology during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, scientists at US pharma giant Pfizer and Moderna developed COVID-19 vaccines building upon their experience in developing mRNA cancer vaccines, according to an article published in the medical journal, Science Direct.

mRNA vaccines work by delivering a strand of messenger RNA into the body, sending a message to the cells to produce a specific protein. RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is an essential polymeric molecule involved in several biological processes within living cells.

The human body’s immune system identifies this protein as foreign and produces antibodies to fight against it. In this case, this approach could be customised to train the immune system to recognise and target cancer cells effectively.

However, this is not the first time that an attempt has been made to find a treatment against cancer using this technology. In fact, in the last three decades, globally several trials have taken place with limited success and major failures – using multiple technologies.

Where is the data, proof: Indian experts

Indian experts believe it’s too early to celebrate. According to Dr Gaurav Dixit, unit head, haemato-oncology at Gurugram-based Artemis Hospital, it’s important to see further data on this.

“Vaccines are available currently for a few cancers which are thought to be due to viral infections. I am not sure if they are talking about a particular cancer or all cancers in general… I would wait for the final data to come out before getting very excited," he said.

Dr Pragya Shukla, head of the department, clinical oncology at Delhi State Cancer Institutes, told News18 that she will be adopting a “wait and watch" policy. “It’s too early to say anything. To have a common vaccine for all cancers is too good to be true as all cancers have different etiopathogenesis," she said.

She said that “even if it’s true, it’s not clear which phase is the trial at. Normally it takes at least 10-15 years to make any vaccine available on the market."

Similarly, according to Dr Satya Prakash Yadav, director, pediatric haematology oncology and bone marrow transplant at Medanta Hospital, “cancer vaccine research has been going on for last 25 years. There has been no big breakthrough as yet."

On a global level, several experts have expressed similar concerns raised by Indian doctors. For instance: Professor Kingston Mills, a renowned immunologist at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, told Newsweek: “Until we see data from a clinical trial, there has to be scepticism about this."

“There’s nothing in scientific journals that I can see about it. That’s where you usually would start reading, as a scientist, about a breakthrough. I don’t see any paper about this, so I have nothing to go on in terms of what the science is," he said.

That’s not to say that Russian scientists have not developed a vaccine against some sort of cancer; Mills said, “The idea of a cancer vaccine is real."