A new study brings exciting news for people with advanced lung or skin cancer.
Researchers found that patients who received a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine within 100 days of starting cancer immunotherapy lived much longer than those who did not.
This surprising discovery could lead to a new way of improving cancer treatment and possibly creating a universal cancer vaccine.
The research was led by scientists from the University of Florida and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. It builds on more than ten years of work using mRNA technology to boost the body’s natural defenses.
Their findings suggest that the same technology used to fight COVID might also help the immune system better fight cancer.
The scientists looked at the medical records of more than 1,000 cancer patients at MD Anderson.
The results showed that people who got a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine around the same time they started immunotherapy treatment had much better survival outcomes. In fact, some patients lived nearly twice as long as those who did not get the vaccine.
This research focused on patients with stage 3 and 4 non-small cell lung cancer and metastatic melanoma. In the lung cancer group, the average survival went from 20.6 months to 37.3 months for those who received the mRNA vaccine.
For the skin cancer group, median survival rose from about 26.7 months to between 30 and 40 months. Some patients were still alive when the data was collected, suggesting the benefits may be even greater.
Doctors already use immunotherapy drugs to help the immune system recognize and attack cancer. But many patients, especially those with late-stage cancer, don’t respond well. This new research shows that giving an mRNA vaccine may make the immune system work better with immunotherapy drugs.
The scientists tested this idea further in mice. They gave the mice both an mRNA vaccine and cancer drugs, and they found that tumors that had not responded before now began to shrink. The vaccine worked like a signal flare, helping move immune cells from the tumor to places in the body where they could do more good, like the lymph nodes.
It’s important to know that this study is still early and based on medical record analysis. That means it doesn’t prove the vaccine caused the improvement.
But the results are strong enough to justify bigger studies. The team plans to launch a large clinical trial through a research group called OneFlorida+, which works to bring medical discoveries into everyday healthcare.
Experts are hopeful that if the findings hold up, they could lead to a “universal” mRNA-based cancer vaccine that works alongside existing cancer drugs. This vaccine wouldn’t target a specific cancer but would help the immune system fight better in general.
This kind of boost could mean the world to cancer patients. Even a small increase in survival—5%, 10%, or more—could offer precious time to patients and families. And if results like these continue, mRNA vaccines may become a powerful new tool in the fight against cancer.
The study was presented at the 2025 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress and funded by the National Cancer Institute and other groups. The lead researchers have patents on mRNA vaccines developed at the University of Florida.
If you care about cancer, please read studies about how to fight cancer with these anti-cancer superfoods ,and a berry that can prevent cancer, diabetes and obesity.
For more health information, please see recent studies about how to harness the power of anti-cancer foods and supplements, and cancer-fighting foods and recipes.
Copyright © 2025 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
