The news is so unexpected that it should be treated with the greatest caution. The Russian Ministry of Health claims to have developed a vaccine against cancer, which it plans to distribute free of charge from the beginning of 2025. It is Professor Andreï Kaprin, director general of the National Center for Medical Research in Radiology (which depends on the Russian Ministry of Health), which had the honor of making this big announcement, relayed by the British daily Daily Mail.
The vaccine would primarily be intended for patients already suffering from cancer. According to comments from several scientists working for the Russian government, each injection would be personalized, in order to be fully adapted to the profile and state of health of the individuals. This principle is already being tested in the fight against melanoma, one of the widespread forms of skin cancer. In April 2024, Steve Young, a 52-year-old British patient, testified about his experience as the first individual to receive this type of messenger RNA vaccine.
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Personalized vaccines
The principle of this new type of vaccine is in any case to teach the immune system to recognize and attack the proteins specific to each patient’s cancer. To do this, vaccines use ribonucleic acid (RNA) from the individual’s own tumor: this genetic material allows them to use antigens, these harmless proteins located on the surface of cancer cells.
Once the antigens are introduced into the body, they should be able to stimulate the immune system which would then begin to produce antibodies intended to fight them. These antibodies would at the same time kill cancer cells.
The Kremlin did not provide further details on its discovery. It is currently unclear what types of cancer the vaccine is supposed to treat, how effective it is or how Russia plans to deploy it. The Daily Mail recalls that other countries are currently working on developing their own personalized cancer vaccines. This is how, in May 2024, researchers at the University of Florida tested an individualized vaccine on four patients suffering from glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer.
The results of these experiments (published on May 9 in the scientific journal Cell) were truly satisfactory, as emphasized by Doctor Elias Sayour, pediatric oncologist, researcher at the Florida University and co-author of the study. “In less than forty-eight hours, we were able to see these tumors go from what we call “cold” – immune cold, very few immune cells, very silent immune response – to “hot”, a very active immune response. .”
Would Russia have taken all the other countries by surprise? It is still too early to be certain. The Indian economic daily Mint recalls that in June 2024, the Russian Minister of Health, Mikhail Murashko, declared in an interview with the Russian news agency Tass that the cancer vaccine was being developed by several scientific teams of the country, as part of research “financed by the State on the orders of the government”. If its acceleration may seem too rapid to be honest, it is difficult to know whether the statement recently made by the Russian ministry’s research center is a pure announcement or if a revolution is underway.
