In this week's episode, we jump into the emerging field of personalized cancer vaccines. Cancer remains the second leading cause of death worldwide due to its complex nature. "Cancer" actually encompasses over 275 diseases, each driven by genetic mutations that make cancer cells act independently and harmfully within the body. Find out how scientists are using genetics to identify unique targets for individual people's cancers and using these targets to train our own immune system using cancer vacines.

References:

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Hanahan, D., & Weinberg, R. A. (2000). The hallmarks of cancer. Cell, 100(1), 57-70. https://doi.org/10.1016%2FS0092-8674%2800%2981683-9

National Cancer Institute. (n.d.) Types of cancer treatment. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. [Website]. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types

Iwasaki, A., & Omer, S. B. (2020). Why and how vaccines work. Cell, 183(2), 290-295.https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7560117/

Xie, N., Shen, G., Gao, W., Huang, Z., Huang, C., & Fu, L. (2023). Neoantigens: promising targets for cancer therapy. Signal transduction and targeted therapy, 8(1), 9. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-022-01270-x

Braun, D. A., Moranzoni, G., Chea, V., McGregor, B. A., Blass, E., Tu, C. R., ... & Choueiri, T. K. (2025). A neoantigen vaccine generates antitumour immunity in renal cell carcinoma. Nature, 639,474–482 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08507-5