In a world-first clinical trial, scientists will begin testing a lung cancer vaccine designed to prevent the disease in people at high risk.
Developed by researchers from the University of Oxford and University College London, the preventative vaccine, known as LungVax, has the potential to save lives by reducing people’s risk of developing lung cancer.
The LungVax team has been awarded up to £2.6 million, supported by the CRIS Cancer Foundation, to initiate testing of the vaccine in a four-year Phase 1 trial, which is expected to commence 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 lethal and blights far too many lives. Survival has been stubbornly poor for decades. A lung cancer vaccine is our chance to do something to actively prevent this disease.”
Lung cancer statistics
Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death in the UK, accounting for 20% of cancer deaths each year.
It can be particularly difficult to detect early and treat, and only 1 in 10 people diagnosed with the disease will survive it for 10 years or more.
How does LungVax work?
The revolutionary lung cancer vaccine employs similar technology to the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, providing the immune system with a set of genetic instructions that help it identify and kill abnormal cells.
This means that lung cancer cells can be distinguished from healthy cells due to “red flag” proteins called neoantigens.
The purpose of LungVax is to get the immune system to recognise these abnormal cells early and destroy them before they start to change towards cancer.
This sets it apart from lung cancer treatment vaccines, which are designed for people who have already been diagnosed.
The phase 1 trial will determine the optimal dose of LungVax to give to people at high risk of lung cancer and examine any possible side effects.
It will focus on a small group of people who have already been treated for early-stage lung cancer but have a high risk of their disease returning, as well as some 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 phases of the trial could test a wider cohort of high-risk people.
Tracking lung cancer back to the start
The idea for LungVax can be traced back to Cancer Research’s flagship lung cancer study, TRACERx.
Since 2014, TRACERx and its successor project TRACERx EVO have been uncovering the genomic secrets of how lung cancers develop, grow, and spread.
Using information from TRACERx, the LungVax team were able to identify which early changes a vaccine would need to target to stop lung cancer from developing in the first place.
Are vaccines the future of cancer prevention?
“Preventative vaccines will not replace stopping smoking as the best way to reduce the risk of lung cancer,” stated Professor Mariam Jamal-Hanjani of University College London, who will lead the trial.
“However, they could offer a viable route to preventing some cancers from emerging in the first place.”
LungVax is in its experimental stages, so there’s a long way to go before we understand if it’s safe and effective. Still, the clinical trial is a significant step forward for cancer prevention research overall.
