Scientists have discovered the ability to “personalize” cancer treatments using cutting-edge genetic technology – but experts fear that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s, recent funding cuts will have “a profound chilling effect” on U.S. progress in this area of medicine.
The new mRNA vaccines are specifically engineered to address the genetic differences of each patient with stomach cancer, according to Japanese researchers in a study published Tuesday, which makes them more effective than standard treatments.
But, vaccine experts told The Independent that $500 million cuts to mRNA development at Emory University, Pfizer, and other institutions in flu, Covid and infectious disease vaccines could be devastating to progress in the U.S.
“Secretary Kennedy’s decision to cancel $500 million in contracts and spread lies about the safety and protection offered by mRNA vaccines will have a profound chilling effect on innovative medical research,” Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health, told The Independent in an email.
“mRNA vaccines hold tremendous promise to not only protect us from some of the worst infections, but also from devastating diseases like cancer,” she added. “Rather than look forward at the promise of life-saving cures, the secretary would prefer that we look backwards towards the dark ages when these diseases ravaged us.”
mRNA vaccines work differently from traditional vaccines, which inject a weakened virus into the body to trigger an immune response. Instead, mRNA vaccines teach the body’s cells to make small and harmless pieces of virus that trigger the same response.
The only mRNA vaccines currently available are Covid vaccines, but cancer vaccines work by getting the body to attack the disease. The new vaccines, described in the Japanese study, harness this technology and advance it by targeting unique spots on tumors.
Last week, Kennedy said he would wind down some mRNA vaccine development, saying that the Department of Health and Human Services was “shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate.”
Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, has spread misinformation that mRNA Covid vaccines are deadly and that vaccines “poisoned” American children, despite decades of public research and countless government assessments that have deemed them safe.
HHS’s mRNA cuts have not impacted cancer vaccine research, which is underway at the Texas-based Baylor College of Medicine and other medical institutions, Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine scientist and pediatrician at the school, said. Baylor had announced it was testing the effectiveness of personalized mRNA vaccines in 2023.
But, funding cuts and denouncements of the tech can affect the field more broadly.
“Therefore it’s important that the federal government and the Department of Health and Human Services reverse their position on mRNA vaccines and throw their support behind this technology,” Hotez said.
Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, toldThe Independent that mRNA research in the fight against cancer is “critical.”
“It’s tragic that we have wrapped this up into politics, which will only hurt our ability to move forward,” he said.
HHS told The Independent said that recent $500m cuts to Covid, flu and infectious disease mRNA vaccines would not impact other medical research in the area.
“Technologies that were funded during the emergency phase but failed to meet current scientific standards will be phased out in favor of evidence-based, ethically grounded solutions – like whole-virus vaccines and novel platforms. Other uses of mRNA technology within the department are not impacted by this announcement,” Press Secretary Emily Hilliard said in an email.
The new study, from Kindai University in Osaka, explains that the vaccine targets the unique biological signatures of each patient’s tumor cells.
“NeoAgs, derived from individual genetic alterations in each cancer patient, serve as unique immunological targets on tumor cells and represent the key to personalized immunotherapy,” Kindai University’s Professor Kazuhiro Kakimi said in a statement.
The mRNA vaccine helps the body create more cancer-attacking white blood cells and resulted in tumors shrinking or disappearing. When used with an unnamed cancer drug, it had a heightened effect on tackling the tumor, the study found.
The Japanese researchers said the vaccine was particularly effective on peritoneal metastasis, the condition when stomach cancer spreads to the lining of the abdomen. It is one of the most common forms of reoccurring cancer following surgery for stomach cancer.
Stomach cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths in the world. The U.S. is estimated to see 30,300 new cases of stomach cancer and 10,780 deaths this year, according to the American Cancer Society. It disproportionally affects men, with more than 2,000 more deaths than women.
