Messenger RNA: a hope for a vaccine against certain cancers?

Mes­sen­ger RNA: a hope to find a vac­cine against cer­tain can­cers? Indeed, this is not science fic­tion; vac­cines deve­lo­ped by Mes­sen­ger RNA alrea­dy exist. Indeed, it was through Mes­sen­ger RNA that Pfi­zer-BioN­Tech and Moder­na labo­ra­to­ries deve­lo­ped a vac­cine against Covid-19 in record time. Given this sta­te­ment, is Covid-19 trea­table in the same way as can­cer? Abso­lu­te­ly not. Obvious­ly, the diseases are not at all simi­lar, but the search for a can­cer vac­cine using mes­sen­ger RNA tech­no­lo­gy has been going on for a long time. And it is thanks to this tech­no­lo­gy that the Covid-19 vac­cines were deve­lo­ped so qui­ck­ly. What is mes­sen­ger RNA? To explain its use­ful­ness, we need to know what this tech­nique is because it has been known for decades. Indeed, it was dis­co­ve­red 60 years ago by the Pas­teur Ins­ti­tute. Mes­sen­ger RNA is one or more genes that copy a part of the DNA. So it allows to syn­the­size the pro­teins neces­sa­ry to the cells. Here is an inter­es­ting article that explains how it works but also the hopes that we can base on it.Thus, these two labo­ra­to­ries have crea­ted vac­cines that contain the Mes­sen­ger RNA of a spe­ci­fic viral pro­tein of the coro­na­vi­rus. When the Mes­sen­ger RNA is injec­ted into the body, it acti­vates the immune sys­tem that allows our body to pro­tect itself from Covid 19.

And what about can­cer? It is indeed within the fra­me­work of the research to fight against can­cer, that scien­tists at Moder­na had the idea to use the Mes­sen­ger RNA to deve­lop a vac­cine as qui­ck­ly. The goal is to create one or more vac­cines by injec­ting Mes­sen­ger RNA to pre­pare the immune sys­tem to fight a tumor cell. If we create a vac­cine that, through this tech­no­lo­gy, allows the immune sys­tem to fight the can­cer itself, then we will see a revolution.

So why wasn’t this tried ear­lier? For finan­cial rea­sons. A vac­cine that can poten­tial­ly be injec­ted in a few months to bil­lions of people is very pro­fi­table. A vac­cine that could prevent people from get­ting can­cer, which is not a viral disease, brings in much less money… What do you think? If you are a health pro­fes­sio­nal, your opi­nion is warm­ly wel­co­med! Our forum has a Che­mo­the­ra­py / Radio­the­ra­py / Pro­to­cols theme to wel­come your feed­back. Thank you very much to you!