A new cancer vaccine that ‘stops disease before you get it’ is being created by pharmaceutical giant GSK and the University of Oxford .
The partnership intends to develop a vaccine – or vaccines – that target cells at the pre-cancerous stage, meaning it has the ability to prevent the disease from ever developing.
Professor Sarah Blagden, from the University of Oxford, who will co-lead the new GSK-Oxford Cancer Immuno-Prevention Programme, said that Oxford has expertise in the pre-cancerous changes so that “we can actually now start to sort of be able to detect the undetectable”.
It means that the jab will be able to stop cancerous cells before the disease has taken hold and begun to wreak havoc on the body.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she said: “Cancer does not sort of come from nowhere. You always imagine it would take about a year or two years to develop in your body but, in fact, we now know that cancers can take up to 20 years, sometimes even more, to develop – as a normal cell transitions to become cancerous.
“We know that, actually at that point, most cancers are invisible when they are going through this, what we now call pre-cancer stage. And so the purpose of the vaccine is not to vaccinate against established cancer, but to actually vaccinate against that pre-cancer stage.”
Professor Blagden said experts have identified what features pre-cancerous cells have as they transition towards cancer, meaning “ we can design a vaccine specifically targeted against that.”
She added: “In this case, we’re actually going for the cancer itself, but going at it at the pre-cancer stage.”
Several pharmaceutical firms have already had success with cancer vaccines that stop the disease coming back in people who already have established cancer, but this new one will target the disease before it has even developed.
The programme comes after GSK and Oxford established the Institute of Molecular and Computational Medicine in 2021 to drive forward the research and development of new medicines.
Tony Wood, chief scientific officer at GSK, said: “We’re pleased to further strengthen our relationship with Oxford University and to combine the deep knowledge of Oxford and GSK scientists.
“By exploring pre-cancer biology and building on GSK’s expertise in the science of the immune system, we aim to generate key insights for people at risk of developing cancer.”
