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World Cancer Research Day is an annual day to reflect on the patients and families whose hopes rest on innovative treatments developed by top scientific talent. It is also a moment to take stock of how far cancer treatments have come in recent years, including a breakthrough announced just weeks ago.
In one of the most significant achievements in modern medicine, a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine created by two American companies has shown that it can significantly reduce the risk of melanoma returning and spreading. Melanoma is on the rise, with more than 230,000 Americans expected to be diagnosed this year and many succumbing to the disease.
This first-of-its-kind cancer vaccine warrants extra attention because of mRNA technology's potential to help treat other cancers and serious illnesses. In other words, if research and development in mRNA technology progress, this may be a path toward more treatments for cancer.
Researchers are already studying mRNA medicines against some of the hardest cancers to treat -- including glioblastoma, pancreatic, lung and breast cancers -- and showing successful early results. Data from a vaccine trial involving glioblastoma, one of the most lethal brain cancers, demonstrated that the treatment could rapidly activate a patient's immune system to fight back. Another study found that patients with pancreatic cancer -- a disease with just a 13% five-year survival rate -- could live four to six years after treatment when a personalized mRNA vaccine successfully activated their immune systems.
These advances are the product of decades of American scientific investment: sustained public funding through institutions like the National Cancer Institute, paired with private-sector biotechnology and research institutions built to explore ideas that take years, and sometimes decades, to pay off. This is American leadership in medicine at its best, using our resources, world-class talent and ingenuity to create treatments that can save lives around the world.
We also must acknowledge the countless patients who volunteer to make these breakthroughs possible. Every clinical study depends on people willing to take a chance, often at their most vulnerable moment. These volunteers come from communities coast to coast, from small towns and big cities alike. Their courage and their belief in what science and innovation can deliver are a beacon of hope that we can conquer the hardest medical challenges.
This World Cancer Research Day, we are on the precipice of breakthroughs many once thought were impossible. After the milestones achieved this year, we should feel inspired to invest further and not let politics cut short research that could stop cancer from taking another life.
John Klacking, Ph.D. is a co-founder of two biotech companies and former national board member of the American Cancer Society. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.