COVID-19 mRNA vaccines have been demonstrated to boost anti-tumor effects; these findings may pave the way for the development of a universal cancer vaccine.
Research teams at the University of Florida (FL, USA) and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (TX, USA) have identified a promising connection between the administration of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and improved survival rates in cancer patients undergoing immunotherapy. Their analysis of over 1000 skin and lung cancer patient records, alongside supporting mouse model studies, has laid the groundwork for larger clinical trials and marked significant progress toward the development of a universal cancer vaccine.
Immunotherapies, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), are widely used to treat cancers, including melanoma and non-small-cell lung cancer. However, they often prove ineffective at treating cancers in their advanced stages. This is primarily attributed to the cancer’s ability to evade immune detection and the compromised immune systems of late-stage patients.
Shifting to a non-specific approach
Traditionally, cancer vaccine development has focused on creating vaccines that specifically target antigens expressed by cancer cells. However, in July of this year, co-senior author Elias Sayour’s team at the University of Florida published results from a preclinical study that reshaped the approach to cancer vaccine development. In this research, the team combined ICIs with an experimental non-specific mRNA vaccine, designed to boost overall immune activity rather than target a specific tumoral protein. This non-specific mRNA vaccine, when used in combination with ICIs, successfully elicited a powerful anti-tumor response in mice by ‘waking up’ their immune systems.
These findings prompted lead researcher of the current study Adam Grippin (University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center), a former member of Sayour’s lab, to question whether the pre-existing COVID-19 mRNA vaccines could work in a similar way to the experimental non-specific vaccine.
COVID-19 mRNA vaccines in cancer treatment
To explore this idea, a research team led by Grippin analyzed data from over 1000 patients with late-stage non-small-cell lung cancer or melanoma, treated at MD Anderson between 2019 and 2023. The study compared 180 lung cancer patients and 43 melanoma patients who received a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine within 100 days of starting immunotherapy to larger control groups of cancer patients who did not receive the vaccine.
The team identified a significant link between receiving a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine within 100 days of initiating immunotherapy and improved survival outcomes. In the lung cancer patients studied, median survival nearly doubled, rising from 20.6 months to 37.3 months. Similarly, in melanoma patients, median survival increased from 26.7 months to a range of 30–40 months. Notably, some melanoma patients were still alive at the time of data collection, indicating that the vaccine’s impact on survival may be even greater than initially reported.
Interestingly, administration of non-mRNA vaccines for conditions like pneumonia and influenza was not linked to an increase in survival.
The most dramatic improvements in longevity were observed in patients whose tumors were unlikely – based on a variety of factors – to exhibit a strong immune response. Mouse model experiments conducted by the team validated these findings, demonstrating that combining ICIs with an mRNA vaccine could transform unresponsive cancers into responsive ones, effectively halting tumor growth.
What are the next steps in the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine research?
This research, presented at the ESMO Annual Meeting (17–21 October 2025; Berlin, Germany), comes at an interesting time, just a couple of months after USA Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. withdrew US$500 million in funding for mRNA vaccines being developed to combat respiratory viruses. The decision to cut funding contrasts sharply with this growing body of evidence supporting the versatility of mRNA vaccines.
As this research is observational, before clear clinical implications can be drawn, the findings must be validated in a large prospective and randomized clinical trial. A trial of this kind is already in design and will be conducted through the University of Florida-led OneFlorida+ Clinical Research Network, a consortium of hospitals, health centers and clinics in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, California and Minnesota.
Why is this research significant?
Although the research is in its early stages, its significance cannot be understated. As emphasized by Sayour: “The implications are extraordinary – this could revolutionize the entire field of oncologic care.”
If these findings are validated in a large-scale clinical trial, Sayour has hypothesized: “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.”
Not only does this research highlight the potential to develop a novel universal non-specific vaccine that avoids the complex and time-consuming manufacturing processes required for more specific vaccines, but it also presents a clear step forward in improving overall survival in patients with advanced cancers.