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Scientists have discovered a powerful and unexpected new ally fight cancer: The covid mRNA vaccine,
Patients with advanced lung or skin cancer who received the Covid mRNA jab within 100 days of onset immunotherapy According to groundbreaking research conducted by teams in the US, they lived longer than those who did not.
The researchers said the discovery could mark a significant moment in more than a decade of research into mRNA-based therapies designed to awaken the immune system against cancer — and an “important step” toward the elusive goal of a universal cancer vaccine.
The findings are based on an analysis of more than 1,000 patient records conducted by the University of Florida and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where the patients were being treated.
The teams said the current results are preliminary, but if validated in a randomized clinical trial now in design, the study “could have broad clinical implications”.
“The implications are extraordinary. This could revolutionize the entire field of oncological care,” said senior researcher Dr. Elias Sayur, a pediatric oncologist at the University of Florida.
“We can design a better non-specific vaccine to activate and reset the immune response, which could essentially be a universal, off-the-shelf cancer vaccine for all cancer patients.”
The study included records of 180 advanced lung cancer patients who were vaccinated with Covid within a period of 100 days before or after starting immunotherapy drugs. Meanwhile, 704 people were treated with the same drugs who did not receive the vaccine. Getting vaccinated nearly doubled the average survival rate, from 20.6 months to 37.3 months.
Similarly, among metastatic melanoma patients – suffering from cancer that has spread from its original site, especially the skin, to other parts of the body – 43 of them received the vaccine within 100 days of starting immunotherapy, while 167 patients did not receive the vaccine. Researchers found that with the vaccine, the average survival period increased from 26.7 months to 30 to 40 months. Few patients were alive at the time the data were collected, meaning the vaccine’s effect may be even stronger.
The team said receiving non-mRNA pneumonia or flu vaccines did not change longevity.
In lung and skin cancer, doctors typically combine drugs designed to “release the brakes” on the immune system and more effectively recognize and attack cancer cells, the researchers reported. However, in advanced stages of the disease, most patients do not respond well and often exhaust other treatment options such as radiation, surgery, and chemotherapy.
“One mechanism of how it works is that when you give the mRNA vaccine, it acts as a flare that starts to move all these immune cells from bad areas like the tumor to good areas like the lymph nodes,” Dr. Sayur said.
To further support their findings, researchers at the University of Florida replicated the effect in rats. They combined immunotherapy drugs with a Covid-targeted mRNA vaccine, showing that they could turn unresponsive cancers into responsive cancers, thereby stopping tumor growth.
Dr. Jeff Coler, lead mRNA scientist and Johns Hopkins University professor, said the findings point to another way Operation Warp Speed — part of the U.S. government’s initial response to COVID — continues to save lives in “unique and unexpected ways.”
“The results of this study demonstrate how powerful mRNA medicines really are and that they are revolutionizing our treatment of cancer,” said Dr. Koller.
Dr. Duane Mitchell, director of the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute, said, “Although this has not yet been proven causal, this is the type of treatment benefit we strive for and hope to see with therapeutic interventions – but that rarely happens.”
“I think the urgency and importance of doing the confirmation work cannot be overstated.”
The team’s findings were presented this week at the 2025 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Berlin.
The finding comes just weeks after US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrongly argued that mRNA vaccines are ineffective, as he tried to justify The recent decision by the Department of Health and Human Services to cancel $500 million (£374 million) in government-funded research projects to develop new vaccines using the technology.
vaccines Saved the lives of millions of Americans During the Covid pandemic.