Could Cancer Vaccines Get Held Up by HHS’s Stance on mRNA?

One of the most promising avenues toward new cancer treatments are vaccines, therapies designed to prompt an immune response against a patient’s tumors. Oncologists worry that cancer vaccine research will hit federal resistance, given the Health and Human Services Department’s actions to cancel grants and contracts for mRNA vaccine research. “Even if cancer is not the target, it may have an impact on applications of [mRNA] technology to cancer, as we have relied heavily on lessons from infectious disease vaccination to develop immunotherapies,” explained Michael C. Milone, MD, PhD, an associate professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.