£1.7 million for vaccine to prevent lung cancer

Work to develop the world's first vaccine to prevent lung cancer will be carried out by scientists from UCL, the University of Oxford and the Francis Crick Institute, following a grant of up to £1.7 million from Cancer Research UK and the CRIS Cancer Foundation. The 'LungVax' vaccine uses technology similar to the highly successful Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The team will receive funding for the study over the next two years to support lab research and initial manufacturing of 3,000 doses of the vaccine at the Oxford Clinical BioManufacturing Facility. There are around 48,500 cases of lung cancer every year in the UK. 72% of lung cancers are caused by smoking, which is the biggest preventable cause of cancer worldwide. Lung cancer cells look different from normal cells due to having 'red flag' proteins called neoantigens. Neoantigens appear on the surface of the cell because of cancer-causing mutations within the cell's DNA.