A COVID shot may have quietly given cancer patients a powerful survival boost.
Researchers have found that patients with advanced lung or skin cancer lived significantly longer if they received a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine within 100 days of starting immunotherapy treatment, compared with patients who were not vaccinated.
The finding comes from scientists at the University of Florida and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and represents a major milestone in more than a decade of work on mRNA-based therapies. These treatments aim to stimulate the immune system to better recognize and attack cancer. Building on earlier research from UF, the results also move scientists closer to the long-envisioned goal of a universal cancer vaccine that could strengthen the effects of immunotherapy.
The analysis reviewed medical records from more than 1,000 patients treated at MD Anderson. While the results are considered preliminary, researchers say confirmation through a randomized clinical trial currently being designed could lead to wide-reaching changes in cancer care.
Experts Point to Major Implications for Oncology
“The implications are extraordinary — this could revolutionize the entire field of oncologic care,” said co-senior author Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., a UF Health pediatric oncologist and the Stop Children’s Cancer/Bonnie R. Freeman Professor for Pediatric Oncology Research. “We could design an even better nonspecific vaccine to mobilize and reset the immune response, in a way that could essentially be a universal, off-the-shelf cancer vaccine for all cancer patients.”
Jeff Coller, Ph.D., an mRNA researcher and professor at Johns Hopkins University, said the findings highlight another lasting benefit of Operation Warp Speed (part of the federal government’s early response to COVID-19), which continues to save lives in “unique and unexpected ways.”
“The results from this study demonstrate how powerful mRNA medicines truly are and that they are revolutionizing our treatment of cancer,” Coller said.
Years of mRNA Research Behind the Discovery
Published today in Nature, the study builds on eight years of research led by Sayour that combines lipid nanoparticles with mRNA technology. Messenger RNA, or mRNA, exists in every cell and carries the instructions needed to produce proteins.
In July, Sayour’s lab reported an unexpected insight. To trigger a strong immune attack on tumors, they did not need to target a specific protein within the cancer itself. Instead, broadly activating the immune system, similar to how it responds to a viral infection, was enough to generate an antitumor response.
When researchers paired Sayour’s patented experimental “nonspecific” mRNA vaccine with immune checkpoint inhibitors, a commonly used class of anticancer drugs, they observed a powerful antitumor effect in laboratory mice. The experimental vaccine was not designed to target the COVID spike protein or any specific cancer, but it relied on technology similar to that used in COVID vaccines.
A Key Question About COVID Vaccines
That earlier discovery led first author Adam Grippin, M.D., Ph.D., to ask a pivotal question. Grippin trained at UF’s Preston A. Wells Center for Brain Tumor Therapy and now works at MD Anderson.
Would the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine produce a similar immune-boosting effect?
To explore that question, the research team analyzed records from patients with Stage 3 and 4 non-small cell lung cancer and metastatic melanoma who were treated at MD Anderson between 2019 and 2023.
Their analysis revealed that patients who received a COVID mRNA vaccine within 100 days of starting immunotherapy lived significantly longer than those who did not.
Strongest Benefit Seen in Hard-to-Treat Patients
According to Sayour, the survival advantage was most pronounced in patients who were least expected to respond well to immunotherapy, based on molecular features of their tumors and other clinical factors.
As with any observational study, the results must be validated in a prospective and randomized clinical trial.
Still, researchers say the finding represents an important turning point.
“Although not yet proven to be causal, this is the type of treatment benefit that we strive for and hope to see with therapeutic interventions — but rarely do,” said Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D., Grippin’s doctoral mentor and director of the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute. “I think the urgency and importance of doing the confirmatory work can’t be overstated.”
Survival Gains in Lung Cancer and Melanoma
Immunotherapy is commonly used in lung and skin cancers to help the immune system better recognize and destroy cancer cells by “releasing the brakes.” In advanced stages of disease, however, many patients respond poorly and have already exhausted options such as surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.
The study examined 180 patients with advanced lung cancer who received a COVID vaccine within 100 days before or after beginning immunotherapy, as well as 704 similar patients who did not. Vaccinated patients had a median survival of 37.3 months, compared with 20.6 months among those who were not vaccinated.
Among patients with metastatic melanoma, 43 received a COVID vaccine within 100 days of starting immunotherapy, while 167 did not. Median survival increased from 26.7 months in unvaccinated patients to a range of 30 to 40 months in vaccinated patients. Some vaccinated patients were still alive at the time data were collected, suggesting the benefit could be even greater.
In contrast, patients who received non-mRNA vaccines for pneumonia or influenza showed no improvement in survival.
Lab Experiments Help Explain the Effect
To support the patient data, UF researchers conducted additional studies in mice. They combined immunotherapy drugs with an mRNA vaccine designed to target the COVID spike protein. These experiments showed that cancers previously resistant to treatment became responsive, slowing or stopping tumor growth.
“One of the mechanisms for how this works is when you give an mRNA vaccine, that acts as a flare that starts moving all of these immune cells from bad areas like the tumor to good areas like the lymph nodes,” Sayour said.
Next Step: Large Clinical Trial
Researchers are now preparing to launch a large clinical trial through the UF-led OneFlorida+ Clinical Research Network. The network includes hospitals, health centers, and clinics across Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, California, and Minnesota.
“One of our key motivations at OneFlorida is to move discoveries from academic settings out into the real world and the places where patients get care,” said Betsy Shenkman, Ph.D., who leads the consortium.
If confirmed, the findings could open the door to new treatment strategies, including improved nonspecific vaccines that could be used broadly across cancer types. For patients with advanced cancer, the potential benefit is simple but profound: more time.
“If this can double what we’re achieving currently, or even incrementally — 5%, 10% — that means a lot to those patients, especially if this can be leveraged across different cancers for different patients,” said Sayour, an investigator with UF’s McKnight Brain Institute.
Reference: “SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines sensitize tumours to immune checkpoint blockade” by Adam J. Grippin, Christiano Marconi, Sage Copling, Nan Li, Chen Braun, Cole Woody, Elliana Young, Priti Gupta, Min Wang, Annette Wu, Seong Dong Jeong, Dhruvkumar Soni, Frances Weidert, Chao Xie, Eden Goldenberg, Andrew Kim, Chong Zhao, Anna DeVries, Paul Castillo, Rishabh Lohray, Michael K. Rooney, Benjamin R. Schrank, Yifan Wang, Yifan Ma, Enoch Chang, Ramez Kouzy, Kyle Dyson, Jordan Jafarnia, Nina Nariman, Gregory Gladish, Jacob New, Ada Argueta, Diana Amaya, Nagheme Thomas, Andria Doty, Joe Chen, Nikhil Copling, Gabriel Alatrash, Julie Simon, Alicia Bea Davies, William Dennis, Richard Liang, Jeff Lewis, Xiong Wei, Waree Rinsurongkawong, Ara A. Vaporciyan, Andrew Johns, D3CODE Team, Jack Lee, Ji-Hyun Lee, Ryan Sun, Padmanee Sharma, Hai Tran, Jianjun Zhang, Don L. Gibbons, Jennifer Wargo, Betty Y. S. Kim, John V. Heymach, Hector R. Mendez-Gomez, Wen Jiang, Elias J. Sayour and Steven H. Lin, 22 October 2025, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09655-y
The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute and multiple foundations.
Sayour, Grippin and Mitchell hold patents related to UF-developed mRNA vaccines that are licensed by iOncologi Inc., a biotech company born as a “spinout” from UF in which Mitchell holds interest.
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3 Comments
In reality, it’s more likely to GIVE you cancer.
It was already known that people who had a severe viral infection sometimes had a spontaneous remission of the cancer. So many things that covid-19 may impact. Diabetes among them.
So taking the COVID vaccine just let people live with a terminal cancer longer, yet still die from it.
Not sure I would want that.