Scientists are investigating whether a vaccine for cancer can be developed using the same mRNA technology as in COVID-19 jabs.
A team at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, has begun testing jabs that can recruit the immune system to latch onto and kill cells that are replicating uncontrollably, stopping the disease in its tracks.
The potential vaccines are being heralded as a ‘game-changer’ that could help overcome America’s second-biggest cause of death.
Research comes as part of a larger movement to incorporate mRNA technology into more forms of treatment after the long-unused technology emerged during the pandemic due to its ease of development and manufacturing.
‘If we can roll this out in the clinic for cancer, we think it could be a game-changer,’ Dr Zachary Hartman, an assistant professor in immunology at Duke, told WGHP.
The mRNA shots, manufactured by Pfizer, which partnered with the German-based BioNTech, and Moderna, proved to be one of the most effective developed.
While the technology was discovered decades ago, it largely went unused before the pandemic brought it to the forefront of vaccine development.