Cancer vaccines: shot in the arm to prevent the deadly disease?

Cancer continues to be one of the deadliest non-communicable diseases in the world. Every year, the number of cases rises drastically even as medical care races to develop newer and more effective treatments.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), more than 14 lakh cancer cases were reported in India in 2023. Acknowledging India’s cancer burden, the 2026-27 Budget removed basic customs duty on 17 life-saving drugs for patients undergoing cancer treatment.

An emerging aspect of cancer prevention and treatment is vaccines. On this World Cancer Day, marked every year on February 4, we look at where research and availability stand for cancer vaccines, and if they really provide a ray of hope in treating this disease.

While we are familiar with vaccines for diseases caused by microbes, like COVID-19 or tuberculosis, vaccination for cancer is still a fairly new frontier in oncology, but it challenges what we know about cancer treatment.

TYPES OF CANCER VACCINES

Cancer vaccines are of two types – therapeutic, which are aimed at treating existing cancers, and preventive, which are aimed at preventing infections which are known to be associated with cancers.

PREVENTIVE VACCINES THAT WORK

Two vaccines have been medically proven to almost prevent cancer.

Science has established that chronic Hepatitis B infection can increase the risk of liver cancer, and human papillomaviruses (HPV) make women more prone to cervical cancer. Vaccines against these infections significantly reduce the associated risk of cancer.

HEPATITIS-B VACCINE

The UN World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the Hepatitis B vaccine for all infants, children up to 18 years of age, and high-risk adults (those suffering from chronic liver diseases, Human Immunodeficiency Virus). According to an article published in the Cancer Letters journal in 2022, a large study conducted over almost four decades in China showed that the Hepatitis B vaccine given to infants had 72 percent efficacy against the development of liver cancer, and was 70 percent effective in preventing deaths due to liver cancer.

In India, the Hepatitis B vaccine is part of the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) for newborns. UIP is a government programme under which children in India are provided vaccinations against preventable diseases, free of cost.

HPV VACCINE

Vaccination against cervical cancer, mainly caused by HPV, is another shining example of how this preventive treatment can work wonders. While most HPV infections clear up on their own, some can persist for longer and develop into cancers, mainly cervical, oral, or anal cancer.

Cervical cancer is the second-most common type of cancer among Indian women, after breast cancer. According to Indian government data, one in every five women globally suffering from cervical cancer is from India. Around 25 percent of global cervical cancer deaths occur in India.

Although the HPV vaccine is still not a part of UIP, the government has made a considerable push to make it more accessible in the last five years. In the 2024 Union Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the government’s intent to encourage vaccination in girls between the ages of 9 and 14 to prevent cervical cancer.

However, for unclear reasons, the real progress on this front has been slow, and it has still not been included in UIP. Currently, HPV vaccines in India cost anywhere between Rs 2,000 and Rs 9,000 per dose. India-made Cervavac is a cheaper option, but Gardasil-9 covers a wider variety of strains.

According to Dr Kamal Saini, researcher at the Department of Oncology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, University of Cambridge, UK, India should absolutely focus on encouraging regulators to make HPV vaccines available not just to young girls but also to boys. “The science is there, the product is there, it’s now just a question of adopting at scale,” he said.

Scotland presents a highly successful example of reducing cases of cervical cancer in women through HPV vaccination. In 2024, Public Health Scotland said that no cervical cancer cases were detected in fully vaccinated women after the country started HPV immunisation at 12-13 years of age in 2008. The study was conducted in collaboration with the Universities of Strathclyde and Edinburgh.

VACCINES VERSUS OTHER TREATMENTS

Currently, common treatments for cancer include surgery, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy.

Surgery removes the tumour from the body.

Chemotherapy is an aggressive form of treatment, where drugs are used to target fast-dividing cells. However, this also targets non-cancerous, fast-dividing cells in the body, like hair or those in the gut. This is why loss of hair, vomiting and nausea are common side effects of chemotherapy.

Immunotherapy involves waking up the body’s immune system to fight against cancer cells. Cancer grows by masking itself as part of the body so that it is not recognised as foreign and attacked. Immunotherapy removes these “brakes” that are applied by cancer cells and powers the immune system to fight against cancer. The side effects here can be autoimmune diseases.

Therapeutic cancer vaccines aim to train the body’s immune system to recognise and attack tumours. Researchers do this by identifying special proteins found only on cancer cells, not on healthy ones. “It’s like showing the photograph of a criminal – this is the person you need to find,” Dr Saini explained.

Researchers look for the protein that is most different between a patient’s normal cells and cancer cells. These cancer-specific proteins are known as neoantigens. “Essentially, you’re trying to find out what is the most different protein between the normal cells and cancer cells in one patient,” he added.

Neoantigens are used to make personalised vaccines. When given to a patient, the vaccine trains immune cells to spot and destroy the cancerous cells.

A FEW THERAPEUTIC VACCINES

Commercial availability of therapeutic vaccines is still a challenge.

Sipuleucel-T is a vaccine that was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2010 for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. It is available in the US.

“Beyond this, there have been multiple trials, but only a few make it to the late-phase trial stage. They didn’t show much promise and had to be abandoned,” Dr Saini said.

The Bacillus Calmette-Gurin (BCG) vaccine, used mainly to prevent tuberculosis, is used to treat early-stage bladder cancer.

Multiple therapeutic cancer vaccines are in development, at different stages of clinical trials.

Racotumomab, a vaccine for advanced non-small cell lung cancer, has shown promise in clinical trials. A study published in October 2025 analysed its effectiveness as a maintenance therapy following first-line chemotherapy, and found that the five-year survival rate in patients studied reached 20 percent.

Clinical trials for the development of vaccines against breast cancer are also under way in the US. One of these studies showed an immune response in 74 percent of participants with an experimental vaccine for preventing triple-negative breast cancer, during phase one of the trial. Triple-negative breast cancer is among the most lethal forms of the disease.

Cevumeran, a messenger RNA (mRNA)-based experimental vaccine, has shown potential in a phase one clinical trial by triggering an immune response that can reduce the risk of the condition returning after surgery. This vaccine has been developed by BioNTech in collaboration with Genentech, and is currently in randomised phase 2 clinical trial as an additional treatment for colorectal cancer, muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma, and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

The mRNA 4157 vaccine is in trial phase as a potential personalised treatment for adults with high-risk melanoma (a type of skin cancer), used in combination with pembrolizumab, which is an approved immunotherapy treatment.

According to Dr Saini, the mRNA 4157 vaccine is one of the most promising cancer vaccine trials. “This vaccine has shown promising results in early trials. I await its final results with great anticipation. But it could be more than a couple of years till we see those results,” he said.

CHALLENGES

Challenges related to developing cancer vaccines are manifold, including technological, regulatory, and financial.

These include the actual science of creating vaccines, quality control, infrastructure, distribution, and costing, to name a few.

“Early phase trials in cancer in India are very heavily regulated; it’s not easy to obtain approvals,” Dr Saini said.

For India specifically, insurance is also an issue. “As a country, we are very underinsured. There’s no population-level insurance, no free healthcare or reimbursement. These are some of the roadblocks in rolling out even research programmes for cancer vaccines in India,” he added.

According to Dr Saini, cancer care is currently in the era of precision oncology, but the goal is to make treatment more personalised. “In general, we are moving towards more fine-tuned treatments. Personalisation is the end goal – right treatment for the right patient at the right time,” he said.