Vaccine against the reappearance of skin cancer enters final testing phase

This Friday (26), British doctors released the first photographs of a man receiving an immunizer that can reduce the recurrence of melanoma, a type of cancer, in patients who have already fought the disease. The vaccine also had positive results in preventing the recurrence of lung, kidney and bladder cancer.

The patient who volunteered to test the last phase of the vaccine is called Steve Young, a 51-year-old musician who discovered he had level II melanoma last year. The vaccine could be the solution against the return of the disease in the musician's body.

“I feel lucky to be part of this clinical trial. Of course, I didn't feel so lucky when I was diagnosed with skin cancer; in fact, it was a huge shock, but now that I've had treatment, I'm looking forward to making sure it doesn't come back.” This is my best chance to stop cancer.”says the patient in a statement.

Different method

_{The new vaccine uses a similar method to vaccines against Covid-19 (Photo: reproduction/National Cancer Institute/Unsplash)}

“This is an individualized therapy and much smarter, in some ways, than a vaccine,” Heather Shaw, oncologist and national coordinator of the phase 3 clinical trial of mRNA-4157 (V940), told the British newspaper The Guardian, showing great expectation with the results. “It's absolutely personalized to the patient – ​​you couldn't give it to the next patient in line because you wouldn't expect it to work.”.

The immunizing agent has the distinction of “training” the patient's immune system against the disease previously present in the body. “The idea behind this immunotherapy is that by stimulating the body to produce these proteins, it can prime the immune system to quickly identify and attack any cancer cells that contain them, with the goal of preventing melanoma from recurring.“

The disease

_{Melanoma is the rarest type of disease (Photo: reproduction/freestocks/Unsplash)}

Skin cancer is one of the deadliest in the world due to the tumor's greater ease in spreading to other organs, known as metastasis. In Brazil, it is the most frequent diagnosis of malignant tumors, but melanoma, the most aggressive, accounts for only 4% of this percentage.

Experts also state that the vaccine does not seek to prevent the disease, but to prevent it from recurring in already cured patients.

Featured Photo: New vaccine that could revolutionize cancer treatment enters final phase of testing (Reproduction//Instagram/@steveyounguk)