Cancer vaccines will have a pivotal moment in 2025

By Natasha Loder – The Economist

Personalised vaccines are tailored to a patient’s specific mutations, and aim to train the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells based on their unique genetic make-up. First comes a biopsy, then the sequencing of the tumour, the identification of mutations likely to generate proteins that would be recognised by the immune system, and finally the manufacturing of a vaccine to target those markers. This can all be done within six weeks, thanks to advances in mrna technology made during the pandemic, and to progress in artificial intelligence, which is used to predict the molecular markers most likely to stimulate the immune system into action.