Vaccine Has Potential for Immense Impact
Lung cancer remains one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers. “In the past few decades, public health measures including tobacco cessation and lung cancer screening have contributed to the reduction of lung cancer incidence and improved survival in high-income countries, but lung cancer continues to be the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide,” Saadia A. Faiz, MD, a member of the CHEST Physician editorial board, said in an interview.
“Further, new cancer diagnoses continue to increase in low-income countries where there may not be widespread public health initiatives and/or access to healthcare. Thus, development of a vaccine to prevent lung cancer could be very impactful,” she said.
Challenges to vaccine development include the heterogeneous nature of the disease, which may occur in smokers and nonsmokers, said Dr. Faiz. “Targeting the various molecular markers may be challenging,” she said. However, building on the success of other vaccine initiatives, such as the human papillomavirus vaccine for cervical cancer, and COVID-19 vaccines with collaboration and clinical research will ideally overcome these challenges, she added.
“The potential implications for a lung cancer vaccine are immense,” said Dr. Faiz.
A lung cancer vaccine could prevent a deadly disease, but continued efforts in risk factor reduction and lung cancer screening will also be important, she said.
“Depending on the results of this clinical research, longitudinal data regarding efficacy, side effects, and prevention will be vital prior to application in high-risk patients in clinical practice,” she emphasized.
The development of the lung cancer vaccine is supported in part by Cancer Research UK and the CRIS Cancer Foundation. Dr. Elliott has received support from Cancer Research UK but had no financial conflicts to disclose. Dr. Faiz had no financial conflicts to disclose.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.