World’s first mRNA lung cancer vaccine trials begin in Europe

Current Context : World-first lung cancer vaccine trials launched across seven countries.

• The phase 1 clinical trial, the first human study of BNT116, has launched across 34 research sites in seven countries: the UK, US, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain and Turkey.
• Aim : to strengthen a person’s immune response to cancer while leaving healthy cells untouched, unlike chemotherapy.
• It is designed to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common form of the disease.
• Vaccine is based on mRNA (messenger Ribonucleic Acid) technology.
• This technology is seen as the next big phase of cancer treatment.

Lung cancer is the world’s leading cause of cancer death, accounting for about 1.8million deaths every year.