Khaberni - Patients at risk of deadly lung cancer will soon be able to receive the world's first vaccine designed to prevent this disease, but quitting smoking is still recommended as the best way to avoid contracting the disease.
Vaccinations will not replace quitting smoking as the best way to reduce risk.
According to "Daily Mail", researchers at London College and Oxford University will conduct the trial over the next 4 years, with the first stage expected to begin in the summer of 2026.
Optimal vaccine dosage
The team will research the best dose of the "LungVax" vaccine for patients at high risk and will check for any potential side effects from different doses of the vaccine in the first phase of the trial.
Lung cancer is the most common type of cancer worldwide and the leading cause of death from cancer.
Experts now hope to be able to prevent the onset of certain types of cancer in the first place.
Professor Mariam Jamal Hanjani, co-founder and trial leader, said: "Less than 10% of those diagnosed with lung cancer survive for 10 years or more."
She continued: "This has to change, and this change will come from targeting lung cancer in its early stages."
Quitting smoking
But she warned: "Preventive vaccinations will not replace quitting smoking as the best way to reduce the risk of lung cancer. However, they may provide an effective way to prevent the onset of some types of cancer in the first place."
The vaccine uses messenger RNA (mRNA), similar to COVID-19 vaccines, and works by training the immune system to recognize these proteins - known as tumor antigens - on the surface of abnormal lung cells.
Dr. Sarah Blagden, co-founder of the LungVax project from Oxford University, said: "Lung cancer is deadly and has devastated the lives of many. Survival rates have been very low for decades, and the vaccine is our chance to do something to effectively prevent this disease."
First vaccine trial
To verify the vaccine's effectiveness and safety, the trial will begin with patients who were diagnosed with lung cancer at an early stage but successfully had it removed.
This means that these patients are at high risk of the disease returning. The vaccine will also be offered to patients undergoing lung cancer screening as part of the National Health Service's lung cancer screening programme in England.
Dr. Hanjani said: "The clinical trial for LungVax is a critical first step in providing this vaccine to people most at risk of the disease. We will carefully study how people respond to the vaccine, how easy it is to administer, and who may benefit most from it in the future."
If the trial is successful, the team hopes to offer the vaccine to more people at risk of this deadly disease.
