In the world’s first clinical trial, scientists will begin testing a lung cancer vaccine designed to prevent the disease in people at high risk.
A preventive vaccine known as LungVax, developed by researchers at the University of Oxford and University College London, has the potential to save lives by reducing people’s risk of developing lung cancer.
The LungVax team has been awarded a grant of up to £2.6 million, with support from the CRIS Cancer Foundation, to begin testing the vaccine in a four-year phase 1 trial scheduled to start in summer 2026.
Sarah Blagden, Professor of Experimental Oncology at the University of Oxford and co-founder of the LungVax project, explained: “Lung cancer is deadly and takes too many lives. Survival rates have remained low for decades. A lung cancer vaccine is an opportunity to do something to proactively prevent this disease.”
lung cancer statistics
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the UK, accounting for 20% of cancer deaths each year.
The disease is particularly difficult to detect and treat early, with only one in 10 people diagnosed with the disease surviving for more than 10 years.
How does LungVax work?
This innovative lung cancer vaccine uses similar technology to the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, providing the immune system with a set of genetic instructions to help identify and kill abnormal cells.
This means that lung cancer cells can be distinguished from healthy cells by “danger signal” proteins called neoantigens.
LungVax’s goal is to get the immune system to recognize these abnormal cells early and destroy them before they start turning into cancer.
This distinguishes it from lung cancer treatment vaccines, which are designed for people who have already been diagnosed with lung cancer.
The Phase 1 trial will determine the optimal dose of LungVax to administer to people at high risk of lung cancer and investigate possible side effects.
The study will focus on a small number of people who have already been treated for early-stage lung cancer but are at high risk of recurrence, as well as some people who are undergoing targeted lung health checks as part of NHS England’s targeted lung cancer screening programme.
If early results are promising, the next stage of the trial could test a broader population of high-risk people.
Tracing lung cancer back to its origins
The idea for LungVax goes back to Cancer Research’s flagship lung cancer study, TRACERx.
Since 2014, TRACERx and its successor project TRACERx EVO have been unlocking the genomic secrets of how lung cancer originates, grows, and spreads.
Using information from TRACERx, the LungVax team was able to identify what early changes a vaccine should target to stop lung cancer from developing in the first place.
Will vaccines prevent cancer in the future?
“Prophylactic vaccines cannot replace smoking cessation as the best way to reduce the risk of lung cancer,” said Professor Maryam Jamal Khanjani from University College London, who is leading the trial.
“But they may offer a viable way to prevent some cancers from occurring in the first place.”
LungVax is experimental, so there’s a long way to go before we understand whether it’s safe and effective. Still, this clinical trial is an important step forward for cancer prevention research overall.
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