Russian Cancer Vaccine

Why in News?

Russia has developed a cancer vaccine that is personalized for each patient. The vaccine uses RNA from the patient’s tumor. The vaccine will be available for free to Russian citizens starting in 2025.

Key Highlights of Russia’s Cancer Vaccine:

Personalized Treatment: The vaccine is tailored to each patient by using RNA extracted from their own tumor, making it unique to their cancer type.
Immune System Activation: The vaccine works by introducing antigens from cancer cells to stimulate the immune system, which then attacks the cancerous cells.
Advanced Technology: The vaccine is developed using high-level techniques, including artificial intelligence, to analyze tumor data and create an effective treatment.
Quick Preparation: The process of creating the vaccine takes between 30 minutes to one hour, ensuring rapid response to the patient’s needs.
Cost of Production: Each dose of the vaccine costs about 3 lakh rubles, but it will be provided free of charge to Russian citizens.
Scope of Use: While the specific types of cancer it will treat remain unclear, it is expected to be effective for common cancers like colon, breast, and lung cancer.

Introduction of Cancer

Cancer is a broad term for a group of diseases where abnormal cells in the body grow uncontrollably, forming tumors and potentially spreading to other parts of the body. While cancer can develop in nearly any tissue or organ, the type of cancer is generally named after the place where it begins, such as breast cancer or lung cancer.

Types of Cancer:

Carcinomas: These are the most common types of cancer and arise from epithelial cells, which line the internal and external surfaces of the body. Example: Lung and Colon cancer.
Sarcomas: These cancers develop in the bone or soft tissues, such as muscles, fat, and blood vessels.
Leukemia: Affects the blood which results from abnormal WBC. This affects bone marrow also.
Lymphomas: These cancers originate in the lymphatic system and affect the white blood cells, specifically lymphocytes.
Melanomas: Develop in the melanocytes, the cells that produce pigment in the skin. Though often associated with the skin, melanoma can occur in other parts of the body as well.
Other Contributing Factors Cancer development can be influenced by a range of factors:
- Genetics: Some individuals may inherit genetic mutations that increase the likelihood of developing cancer.
- Lifestyle Choices: Smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, poor diet, and lack of physical activity can contribute to cancer risk.
- Environmental Exposure: Prolonged exposure to environmental pollutants or carcinogens like asbestos and radiation can increase the risk.
- Age and Gender: Some cancers are more common in certain age groups or gender, with women more likely to develop breast and cervical cancers, and men more likely to develop prostate and lung cancers.

How Cancer Vaccines Works:

Targeting Cancer-Related Proteins:
- Cancer vaccines introduce cancer-specific proteins or substances that mimic the cancer cells’ surface proteins.
- These proteins can be unique to the cancer cells or found in higher amounts on them, known as tumor-associated antigens.
- By presenting these antigens to the immune system, the vaccine trains the body to identify and destroy cells displaying these proteins.
Activating the Immune System:
- Dendritic cells, a type of immune cell, play a key role in processing and presenting these antigens to other immune cells.
- Once the dendritic cells recognize the cancer proteins, they activate T-cells, which are responsible for identifying and attacking abnormal cells, including cancer cells.
- This activation prepares the immune system to recognize and target cancer cells.
Stimulating a Targeted Immune Response:
- The immune system, after learning to recognize the cancer antigens, begins to focus its attack on cancer cells that display these antigens.
- T-cells are specifically trained to seek out and kill cancer cells.
Preventing Cancer Recurrence:
- Beyond just treating existing cancer, cancer vaccines also help create long-term immune memory.
- This means the immune system is more likely to recognize and destroy any cancer cells that might return, preventing cancer from coming back.

The Role of mRNA Technology in Cancer Treatment

mRNA Cancer Vaccines: mRNA technology is used to create vaccines that encode cancer-specific antigens. These vaccines trigger the immune system to recognize and target cancer cells, offering a precise and targeted approach to treatment.
Enhanced Immune Response: mRNA vaccines help activate the immune system, particularly cytotoxic T cells, to destroy cancer cells. By encoding tumor-specific proteins, they train the body to identify and attack cancer cells more effectively.
Advantages over DNA Vaccines: mRNA vaccines are easier and cheaper to produce than DNA vaccines. They don’t integrate into the host’s genome, minimizing safety concerns, and they can be tailored to target a wide range of cancer mutations.

Challenges in Cancer Vaccine Development

Developing a cancer vaccine is biologically challenging because cancer is not a single disease, but rather a result of thousands of different conditions.
Cancer cells are similar to normal cells, making it difficult for the immune system to recognize them as threats. Since cancer cells often produce molecules that suppress immune responses, immune cells may fail to attack the tumor even if activated by a vaccine.
Cancer vaccines work by training the immune system to recognize tumor cells. If the cancer antigens present on both normal and abnormal cells are similar, the vaccine could cause immune cells to attack healthy cells, leading to unintended harm to the body. This makes it essential for vaccines to target only cancer-specific features.

Impact of Cancer: Global and National

- According to WHO, in 2020, approximately 10 million deaths were attributed to cancer, accounting for nearly one in every six deaths globally.
- According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer causes the death of 17 people every minute worldwide.
- Infections that cause cancer, such as Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and Hepatitis, contribute to about 30% of cancer cases in low and middle-income countries.
- In 2022, approximately 20 million new cancer cases and 9.7 million cancer-related deaths occurred.
- In 2022, lung cancer led the world with 2.5 million new cases (12.4% of total new cases), followed by breast cancer (2.3 million cases), colorectal cancer (1.9 million cases), prostate cancer (1.5 million cases), and stomach cancer (970,000 cases).

Cancer in India

- In India, in 2022, 1.41 million new cancer cases were recorded in India, with 722,000 women and 691,000 men diagnosed.
- Around 916,000 deaths occurred due to cancer that year, and 23.68 lakh deaths have been reported due to cancer across the country.
- The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) predicts that cancer cases will rise by 12% over the next five years, with younger individuals increasingly being diagnosed.
- The Global Cancer Observatory reports that cancers like breast, mouth, cervical, and lung cancers are among the most common in India. Breast cancer, prostate cancer, and thyroid cancer are on the rise among individuals under 50 years old.

Global Efforts in Cancer Vaccine Development

India has developed its first indigenous vaccine for cervical cancer named ‘Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus Vaccine (qHPV)’. This vaccine was created by the Serum Institute of India (SII) in collaboration with the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) of the Government of India.
In the United States, pharmaceutical companies such as Moderna and Merck, in collaboration with BioNTech from Germany, are working on developing a skin cancer vaccine. Early trial results show promising outcomes, with a 50% reduction in death rates from skin cancer after three years of treatment.
The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) launched the world’s first trial for a personalized cancer vaccine. The vaccine is tailored to each patient and is the result of decades of research.
Moderna is developing mRNA medicines for a range of diseases and conditions.
Recently, seven countries, including the U.S., began trials for a lung cancer vaccine.

These efforts represent a significant global push towards innovative cancer vaccines, aiming to tackle various types of cancer with targeted, preventative solutions.

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