A 67-year-old man has become the first person in the UK to try a vaccine to cure his lung cancer in what doctors are calling a "game changer," the BBC has reported.
Janusz Racz had a tumour in his right lung, discovered during an unrelated medical scan, and has opted to take part in a research trial spanning seven countries — including the US, Germany, Spain, Türkiye, Hungary, and Poland — across 34 research sites.
The research trial would recruit 130 patients to try the vaccine.
The vaccine was made from the same technology as some of the Covid-19 vaccinations — using mRNA technology to give instructions to the immune system.
Racz's early stage trial would test the safety of the vaccine.
"I hope it will provide a defence against cancer cells. But I also thought that my participation in this research could help other people in future, and help this therapy become more widely available," Racz told the BBC.
"As a scientist myself, I know that science can only advance if people agree to participate in programmes like this."
How might the vaccine work?
The BNT116 vaccine, made by German biotechnology company BioNTech, should target cancer cells, as opposed to healthy cells, and then destroy them. It contained information to teach the patients immune system what cells to find, fight and destruct.
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