A new study suggests that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines could help cancer patients live longer by boosting the immune system’s ability to fight tumours.

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre found that patients with advanced lung or skin cancer who received a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine within 100 days of starting treatment lived twice as long as those who did not. Lung cancer patients saw their median survival increase by over three years, while skin cancer patients survived up to 40 months longer. The findings were published in Nature today.

Experts believe that if these results are confirmed, mRNA vaccines could become a powerful and cost-effective tool in cancer treatment. Associate Professor Seth Cheetham of the University of Queensland, who was not involved in the study, explained that mRNA vaccines activate the immune system in a similar way to many cancer therapies, helping it recognize and attack cancer cells.

“Many cancers are treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors, which prevent cancer cells from hiding from the immune system,” he said. “mRNA vaccines quickly ‘wake up’ the immune system. Within a day, blood from volunteers given a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine showed a sharp rise in interferon, an antiviral alarm, and immune cells switched into a more alert state.”

While cancer vaccines are in development, they are expensive and logistically challenging. COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, on the other hand, are cheaper, widely available, and have already been used globally. Cheetham cautioned that further trials are needed but said the findings are promising.

“If these confirmatory trials succeed, doctors may soon have an unexpected and powerful new option for treating cancer,” he added.