Scientists are working to create a new cancer vaccine that could “detect the undetectable” and stop the disease up to 20 years before it has the chance to develop.
Pharmaceutical giant GSK and the University of Oxford have teamed up to make a vaccine that targets cells at the pre-cancerous stage.
The university has world-leading expertise in the study of pre-cancer biology, such as through identifying and sequencing neoantigens, which are proteins that forms on cancer cells and can be a target for drugs.
Professor Sarah Blagden, who is director of the partnership, said cancer “does not come from nowhere”.
“You always imagine it would take about a year or two years to develop in your body but, in fact, we now know that cancers can take up to 20 years, sometimes even more, to develop - as a normal cell transitions to become cancerous,” prof Blagden told BBC’s Radio 4 on Monday.
“We know that actually at that point, most cancers are invisible when they are going through this, what we now call pre-cancer stage. And so the purpose of the vaccine is not to vaccinate against established cancer, but to actually vaccinate against that pre-cancer stage.”
The GSK-Oxford Cancer Immuno-Prevention Programme has been launched on the back of several technological and scientific advances that have made the potential for vaccines against pre-cancer possible, said prof Blagden.
“We’re lucky because there have been a huge amount of technical breakthroughs that mean we can …. start to be able to detect the undetectable,” she said. “And from that, we’ve been able to work out what features those cells have as they’re transitioning towards cancer, and so we can design a vaccine speficially targeted towards that.”
As part of the deal, GSK will invest up to £50 million over three years into the prgoramme, which will look at how to identify vulnerabilities in pre-cancerous cells with vaccines or targeted medication.
GSK’s chief scientific officer Tony Wood said: We’re pleased to further strengthen our relationship with Oxford University and to combine the deep knowledge of Oxford and GSK scientists. By exploring precancer biology and building on GSK’s expertise in the science of the immune system, we aim to generate key insights for people at risk of developing cancer.”
"We now know that cancer does not come from nowhere."
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) January 27, 2025
Prof Sarah Blagden, director of a new research collaboration between pharma giant GSK and the University of Oxford, tells #R4Today about the development of a new 'pre-cancer' vaccine that could target the disease earlier. pic.twitter.com/AsStfvVV5m
Currently, more than 385,000 people are diagnosed with cancer each year in the UK, and more than 167,000 people a year will die from it, according to data from Cancer Research UK.
Breast cancer is the UK’s most common form of the disease, followed by prostate, lung and bowel cancer, which combined account for nearly half of all cancer deaths.
Science and Technology secretary Peter Kyle said the government would back the life sciences sector to help it deliver research that could transform the health of the country.
“Cancer is a disease that has brought pain and heartbreak to every family in the country, including my own,” he said.
“But through our world-leading universities and businesses working in lockstep, like Oxford and GSK are doing here, we can harness science and innovation to transform what’s possible when it comes to diagnosing and treating this disease.”
