Vaccines to treat cancer
Vaccines are a type of immunotherapy. There are different types of vaccines. There are vaccines that:
- protect us from diseases such as the flu vaccine
- help protect us from cancer such as the HPV vaccine
- help to treat cancer
This page is about vaccines that help to treat cancer. Cancer treatment vaccines help your body’s 
recognise and attack cancer cells. They are a type of immunotherapy.
Research in this area is at an early stage. So vaccines are mainly available as part of clinical trials.
What are vaccines?
Normally, vaccines help to protect us from disease. They are made from weakened or harmless (inactivated) versions of the disease they are designed to protect us from. This means that they don’t cause the disease.
When you have a vaccine, it stimulates your immune system into action. The immune system makes that can recognise and attack the weakened or inactivated] versions of the disease. Once the body has made these antibodies it can recognise the disease if you come into contact with it again. So you’re protected from it.
What are vaccines to treat cancer?
Researchers are looking at vaccines as a possible treatment for cancer.
In the same way that vaccines work against diseases, the vaccines are made to recognise proteins that are on particular cancer cells.
An antigen is a substance that triggers the immune system to respond against it. For example, a virus has antigens on its surface which triggers the immune system to attack it. Body cells and cancer cells also have antigens on them.
Tumour associated antigens are proteins found in cancer cells. Normal cells either don’t have these antigens, or if they do, they have a much smaller amount.
Cancer treatment vaccines aim to help your immune system recognise these antigens. And to attack and destroy the cancer cells that have them.
Types of cancer vaccines
Scientists are studying many different types of cancer vaccines and how they work in different ways. More research is needed before they have a full picture of how well this type of treatment works and which cancers it could treat.
Researchers around the world are looking at the following types of cancer vaccines:
Protein or peptide vaccines
These vaccines are made from special proteins in cancer cells, or from small pieces of protein (). They aim to stimulate your immune system to attack the cancer. Scientists have worked out the genetic codes of many cancer cell proteins, so they can make them in the lab in large quantities.
Nucleic acid based vaccines
Nucleic acids are the building blocks of cells. Nucleic acids include:
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) - ribonucleic acid (RNA)
- messenger RNA (mRNA)
Nucleic acid based vaccines are made from bits of nucleic acids from cancer cells. They can be injected into the body to make the cells of the immune system better at destroying cancer cells.
These vaccines are made with bits of DNA or RNA that are usually found in cancer cells. They can be injected into the body to make the cells of the immune system better at responding to and destroying cancer cells.
Cell based vaccines
These include whole cell vaccines and dendritic cell vaccines.
A whole cell vaccine uses the whole cancer cell, not just a specific cell , to make the vaccine. The cancer cells are changed in the laboratory to make them easier for the immune system to find.
Scientists make the vaccine from your own cancer cells, another person’s cancer cells or cancer cells that were grown in the laboratory.
Dendritic cells help the immune system recognise and attack abnormal cells, such as cancer cells. To make the vaccine, scientists grow dendritic cells alongside cancer cells in the lab. The vaccine then stimulates your immune system to attack the cancer.
Virus vaccines
Scientists can change viruses in the laboratory and use them as a carrier of cancer antigens into your body. They change the viruses so that they cannot cause serious disease. The altered virus is called a viral vector.
Some vaccines use a viral vector to deliver cancer antigens into your body. Your immune system responds to the viral vector. This then helps your immune system to recognise the cancer antigen and attack the cancer.
Example of vaccines used to treat cancer
An example of a virus vaccine is a treatment called T-VEC (talimogene laherparepvec), also known as Imlygic. It uses the cold sore virus (herpes simplex virus). The virus has been changed by altering the that tell the virus how to behave. It tells the virus to destroy the cancer cells and ignore the healthy cells. This also helps the immune system find and destroy other cancer cells.
T-VEC is available as a treatment for some people with melanoma skin cancer whose cancer cannot be removed with surgery. You have T-VEC as an injection directly into the melanoma.
BCG stands for Bacillus Calmette-Guerin. BCG is a vaccine for tuberculosis (TB). It is also helps to stop or delay bladder cancers growing back or spreading into the deeper layers of the bladder.
The vaccine contains a weakened version of a bacteria called mycobacterium bovis. BCG seems to encourage cells of the immune system to grow and become very active in the bladder lining. These cells probably kill off any cancer cells that might grow back or have been left behind.
When you might have these drugs
Research in this area is at an early stage. So cancer treatment vaccines are mainly available as part of clinical trials.
Ask your doctor if they know about any trials that might be suitable for you. This depends on many factors including:
- your type of cancer
- the stage of your cancer
- whether you have already had certain treatments
How you have vaccine treatment
You usually have vaccines as an injection. The type of injection depends on the type of vaccine you are having.
Some vaccines you have as an injection under the skin (subcutaneous injection) or into muscle (intramuscular injection).
If you are having the BCG vaccine, you have this directly into your bladder through a thin tube (catheter).
If you are having T-VEC you have it as an injection directly into the cancer.
What are the side effects of vaccines?
Many cancer treatment vaccines are new treatments. So there might be side effects we don’t yet know about.
Side effects we do know about are similar to other vaccines used for infectious disease. These include:
- redness, swelling, mild pain or itching where you have the injection
- flu like symptoms such as feeling unwell or a high temperature (fever) for a few days after
Your doctor or trial team will tell you more about the individual side effects of each cancer vaccine. You can also read about side effects of individual vaccines in our trial summaries on the clinical trials database.
Cancer Research UK news
Read more about cancer vaccines from our digital news team.
