A new experimental mRNA vaccine has shown the ability to awaken the immune system and wipe out tumors in mouse studies, raising hopes for a universal cancer vaccine.
Instead of targeting a specific tumor protein, researchers discovered that simply revving up the immune system made cancers vulnerable to attack. When paired with immunotherapy drugs, resistant tumors shrank, and in some cases the vaccine alone eliminated them.
mRNA Vaccine Supercharges Immunotherapy in Mice
An experimental mRNA vaccine boosted the tumor-fighting effects of immunotherapy in a mouse-model study, bringing researchers one step closer to their goal of developing a universal vaccine to “wake up” the immune system against cancer.
Published today in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the University of Florida study showed that like a one-two punch, pairing the test vaccine with common anticancer drugs called immune checkpoint inhibitors triggered a strong antitumor response.
Surprising Discovery
A surprising element, researchers said, was that they achieved the promising results not by attacking a specific target protein expressed in the tumor, but by simply revving up the immune system — spurring it to respond as if fighting a virus. They did this by stimulating the expression of a protein called PD-L1 inside of tumors, making them more receptive to treatment. The research was supported by multiple federal agencies and foundations, including the National Institutes of Health.
Senior author Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., a UF Health pediatric oncologist, said the results reveal a potential new treatment path — an alternative to surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy — with broad implications for battling many types of treatment-resistant tumors.
The Case for a Universal Cancer Vaccine
“This paper describes a very unexpected and exciting observation: that even a vaccine not specific to any particular tumor or virus — so long as it is an mRNA vaccine — could lead to tumor-specific effects,” said Sayour, principal investigator at the RNA Engineering Laboratory within UF’s Preston A. Wells Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy.
“This finding is a proof of concept that these vaccines potentially could be commercialized as universal cancer vaccines to sensitize the immune system against a patient’s individual tumor,” said Sayour, a McKnight Brain Institute investigator and co-leader of a program in immuno-oncology and microbiome research.
A Third Way in Cancer Vaccine Strategy
Until now, there have been two main ideas in cancer-vaccine development: To find a specific target expressed in many people with cancer, or to tailor a vaccine that is specific to targets expressed within a patient’s own cancer.
“This study suggests a third emerging paradigm,” said Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D., a co-author of the paper. “What we found is by using a vaccine designed not to target cancer specifically but rather to stimulate a strong immunologic response, we could elicit a very strong anticancer reaction. And so this has significant potential to be broadly used across cancer patients — even possibly leading us to an off-the-shelf cancer vaccine.”
For more than eight years, Sayour has pioneered high-tech anticancer vaccines by combining lipid nanoparticles and mRNA. Short for messenger RNA, mRNA is found inside every cell — including tumor cells — and serves as a blueprint for protein production.
From Personalized to Generalized mRNA Vaccines
This new study builds upon a breakthrough last year by Sayour’s lab: In a first-ever human clinical trial, an mRNA vaccine quickly reprogrammed the immune system to attack glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor with a dismal prognosis. Among the most impressive findings in the four-patient trial was how quickly the new method — which used a “specific” or personalized vaccine made using a patient’s own tumor cells — spurred a vigorous immune-system response to reject the tumor.
In the latest study, Sayour’s research team adapted their technology to test a “generalized” mRNA vaccine — meaning it was not aimed at a specific virus or mutated cells of cancer but engineered simply to prompt a strong immune system response. The mRNA formulation was made similarly to the COVID-19 vaccines, rooted in similar technology, but wasn’t aimed directly at the well-known spike protein of COVID.
Boosted Results With Immunotherapy Drug
In mouse models of melanoma, the team saw promising results in normally treatment-resistant tumors when combining the mRNA formulation with a common immunotherapy drug called a PD-1 inhibitor, a type of monoclonal antibody that attempts to “educate” the immune system that a tumor is foreign, said Sayour, a professor in UF’s Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery and the Department of Pediatrics in the UF College of Medicine.
Taking the research a step further, in mouse models of skin, bone and brain cancers, the investigators found beneficial effects when testing a different mRNA formulation as a solo treatment. In some models, the tumors were eliminated entirely.
Turning Dormant T Cells Into Cancer Killers
Sayour and colleagues observed that using an mRNA vaccine to activate immune responses seemingly unrelated to cancer could prompt T cells that weren’t working before to actually multiply and kill the cancer if the response spurred by the vaccine is strong enough.
Taken together, the study’s implications are striking, said Mitchell, who directs the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute and co-directs UF’s Preston A. Wells Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy.
A Wake-Up Call for the Immune System
“It could potentially be a universal way of waking up a patient’s own immune response to cancer,” Mitchell said. “And that would be profound if generalizable to human studies.”
The results, he said, show potential for a universal cancer vaccine that could activate the immune system and prime it to work in tandem with checkpoint inhibitor drugs to seize upon cancer — or in some cases, even work on its own to kill cancer.
Now, the research team is working to improve current formulations and move to human clinical trials as rapidly as possible.
Reference: “Sensitization of tumours to immunotherapy by boosting early type-I interferon responses enables epitope spreading” by Sadeem Qdaisat, Brandon Wummer, Brian D. Stover, Dingpeng Zhang, James McGuiness, Frances Weidert, Jonathan Chardon-Robles, Adam Grippin, Anna DeVries, Chong Zhao, Christiano Marconi, Aida Karachi, Chao Xie, Gabriel Jobin, Ruixuan Liu, Stephen Michel, Xiaojie Ma, Rachel S. F. Moor, Christina von Roemeling, Duy T. Nguyen, Leighton Elliott, Nagheme Thomas, Arnav Barpujari, Hilary Geffrard, Yodarlynis Campaneria, Elizabeth Ogando-Rivas, Cathleen Rabideau, Dhruvkumar Soni, Jianping Huang, Sheila Carrera-Justiz, Kristianna Fredenburg, Natalie L. Silver, W. Gregory Sawyer, Maryam Rahman, John A. Ligon, Catherine T. Flores, Ji-Hyun Lee, Duane A. Mitchell, Paul Castillo, Hector R. Mendez-Gomez and Elias J. Sayour, 18 July 2025, Nature Biomedical Engineering.
DOI: 10.1038/s41551-025-01380-1
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12 Comments
Were autoimmune pathologies an unintended byproduct of this treatment?
If I were facing a diagnosis of inoperable glioblastoma, I think I would take the risk. You have nothing to lose.
“Sayour and colleagues observed that using an mRNA vaccine to activate immune responses seemingly unrelated to cancer could prompt T cells that weren’t working before to actually multiply and kill the cancer if the response spurred by the vaccine is strong enough.”
Kicking the immune system into high gear could cause it to attack other parts of the body, such as organs.
Wonder if population level data suggests those with more vaccines less likely to get cancer, beyond HPV mediated ones. Problem is those that get vaccines more likely to do other positive health related activities.
”Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a statement Tuesday that 22 projects, totaling $500 million, to develop vaccines using mRNA technology will be halted.”
This breakthrough mRNA research will probably get attacked by this administration as well.
Re: “New mRNA Cancer Vaccine Delivers Stunning Results”
This is more lies and deceptions of the thoroughly criminal “science” and “medicine” establishment!
One would think the sleeping masses have woken up to their perpetual schemes and lies since Covid. But no…
The contemporary Global Covid-19 Super Scam with all of its many ludicrous pseudoscientific “evidence-based medicine” decrees (eg, wear masks, keep 6 feet apart, etc) and interventions (eg, ventilators, Remdesivir, mRNA “vaccines”) –which have been seriously harming and killing TENS OF MILLIONS of people all over the world (https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html) –is further ONGOING proof in plain sight that the criminal allopathic-governmental medical mafia’s claim of adhering to “evidence-based medicine” has remained one of their numerous pathological lies aimed at the public.
“Despite the extensive documentation, most mainstream doctors and media dangerously continue to ignore my findings and refuse to speak about the self assembly nanotechnology [from mRNA “vaccines”] that is in every human being now. The blood contamination is greatly accelerating in the amount of nanotechnology seen due to C19 bioweapon shedding, geoengineering and food contamination, to name a few sources.” —Ana Maria Mihalcea, M.D., Ph.D., Oct 2023 (https://archive.ph/GbMtm)
“Imagine a vaccine so safe you have to be threatened to take it.” — from a poster
If you have been injected with Covid jabs/bioweapons and are concerned, then verify what batch number you were injected with at https://howbadismybatch.com
“There are large numbers of scientists, doctors, and presstitutes who will sell out truth for money, such as those who describe people dropping dead on a daily basis as “rare” when it it happening all over the vaccinated world.” — Paul Craig Roberts, Ph.D., American economist & former US regime official, in 2024
Not to be mean, as I am not a republican, I do have empathy for the poor and sick, but this is a nut job comment. I would love to see you given that conversation that you have cancer and less than a year to live, but they do have this new mRNA treatment. I doubt that you would turn it down.
Please explain why the deaths dropped dramatically
after administration of the COVID 19 vaccine? You are grossly misinformed about
“tens of millions of people around the world killed”.
It is YOU who is “grossly misinformed” (or you’re a shill doing “damage control” for the criminal political-medical establishment, like the other commenter “Brian”)!
Only official fraudulent junk studies show “deaths dropped dramatically after administration of the COVID 19 vaccine” (https://archive.ph/uWpzR).
Gerry is absolutely right that ““tens of millions of people around the world got killed” by the Covid-19 “vaccines”!
One would think everyone finally learned that the “authorities” constantly lie to the public and cannot be trusted at all. You certainly have not learned this.
You’re Gerry aren’t you?
Actually, the opposite haooened: the death rate after the ‘first’ wave in the West was mooted to be attenuated by the vaccine, and may have been: we have no way of knowing. But subsequent boosters have produced an undeniable increase in heart attacks, CVD & strokes and especially new cancer cases. They peak in the 3 months following every booster campaign. This is documented beyond dispute in studies now published in S Korea, Japan and even Canada. The most recent such study was released last week from Japan: it followed 18 MILLION Japanese vaccine & booster recipients since the initial vaccine release. This is no longer “denialism” or wing-nut irrational conspiracy theory: it’s documeted and proven beyond dispute.
The original vaccine MAY have saved lives: we have no way of knowing. What appears certain though is that recipients of subsequent boosters are undeniably more likely to contract Covid, more likely to suffer serious or fatal outcomes, and tend to suffer long-term life-altering symptoms we call “Long Covid”. Last week’s Japanese study of 18 million over 4 years documents waves of mortality due to heart attacks, strokes, CVD & cancers – especially rare & “turbo cancers” – peaking 3-4 months after receipt of boosters.
You were right to be skeptical, but you have in fact been misled this time. The studies (other than one published so far in Canada) are published in other languages, but Google translate does a pretty good job of rendering them readable. Google for studies published in Japan, S Korea & Poland.
Do you even have a secondary school science education?