- Dame Kate Bingham said experimental technology is how we will beat cancer
Former Covid vaccine tsar Dame Kate Bingham has urged the NHS to launch cancer vaccine trials which she says will save thousands of lives.
Dame Kate said the experimental technology – which trains the immune system to hunt cancer cells – will “ultimately be the way we treat this terrible disease”.
The venture capitalist said she envisions a future in which Britons have “blood tests at Boots” to detect the disease at an early stage, then receive a vaccine “at an early stage before the cancer take over.”
She added that she was proud that the UK was the first country to administer Covid vaccines and said she would “love it to be exactly the same with cancer vaccines”.
However, Dame Kate warned that Britain risks falling behind other countries because the NHS is not giving researchers time to carry out clinical trials.
His comments came after it was announced last week that the first personalized vaccine for cutaneous melanoma was being trialled on NHS patients. Early results suggest the vaccine can significantly improve the survival chances of patients with the disease – the deadliest form of skin cancer.
Trials are also underway in patients with lung, liver, kidney, intestinal and pancreatic cancer.
Cancer experts have claimed the UK is entering a “cancer renaissance” with personalized vaccines to combat some of the deadliest tumors expected by 2030.
Vaccines are designed to target specific genetic mutations found in cancer cells. This means that if the cancer returns, the immune system will detect it immediately and destroy the cells before they have time to spread.
-Data published last year found that melanoma patients who received the new vaccine in combination with another immune-boosting drug were half as likely to die or have their cancer return after three years , compared to those who took immunotherapy alone.
Dame Kate chaired the government’s Covid Vaccines Task Force between May and December 2020, tasked with delivering vaccines to protect people in the UK against the virus.
Speaking at the Grand National Cancer Vaccine Summit last Wednesday, organized by health events company Convenzis, she said cancer vaccines would likely be administered as nasal sprays or skin patches to make them affordable.
Dame Kate highlighted research from the National Audit Office which concluded that rolling out Covid vaccines – including purchasing equipment and hiring staff – costs more than developing the vaccines. “This cannot be a sustainable way to conduct a mass vaccination program,” she said.
Dame Kate also expressed concern about the decline in the number of clinical trials being carried out on the NHS over the past five years.
Studies suggest that there has been a 40 percent reduction in new clinical trials since 2017. This is largely because hospitals – which can decide whether or not to submit patients to trials – are focused on reducing waiting lists.
‘[Doctors] are doing clinical trials in the evenings and on weekends because they realize it’s the right thing to do,” she said. “This is simply not acceptable. It must be generally recognized that trials must be implemented quickly.
However, experts say cancer vaccines could be a turning point.
Dr Lennard Lee, a cancer vaccine expert at the University of Oxford, said there are now 12 drugmakers testing cancer vaccines in the UK. He added: “We have already earned the reputation of being the best country in the world for developing cancer vaccines.”
