Are we close to a cancer vaccine?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 7 January 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Cancer is a disease that will affect 1 in 5 people in our lifetime, and it’s estimated that around 20 million people worldwide will be diagnosed with some form of cancer in 2025.
But how might a vaccine help in the treatment of cancer?
Numerous trials began testing the viability of cancer vaccines in 2024, including one for melanoma and another for lung cancer.
With all the promise that these new cancer vaccine trials bring for cancer patients, we explore the different ways in which vaccines could work within the body, and how the time at which future vaccines are administered may vary according to the cancers they are targeting.
This week on the Inquiry we’re asking: Are we close to a cancer vaccine?
Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Matt Toulson Researcher: Katie Morgan Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott Studio Director: Craig Boardman
Contributors:
Meredith McKean, director of Melanoma and Skin Cancer Research for Sarah Cannon Research Institute at Tennessee Oncology
Samra Turajlic, Chief Investigator of translational studies into melanoma and kidney cancer at the Francis Crick Institute and Professor at the Institute of Cancer Research
Eduardo Vilar-Sanchez, professor in the department of Clinical Cancer Prevention at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Patrick Ott, Clinical Director at Melanoma Disease Center at the Dana-Farber Institute
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In 2024, we were here for the gritty ones. |
| 0:04.8 | The adrenaline was building up in me. |
| 0:06.6 | With gripping true crime podcasts, people can shock you all the time. |
| 0:11.3 | Dead man running. |
| 0:12.4 | The word was out. |
| 0:13.9 | A wanted man may have staged his disappearance. |
| 0:17.0 | Intrigue to catch a scorpion. |
| 0:18.9 | Scorpion actually really does look scary. |
| 0:21.2 | I mean, how do you get through that fear? |
| 0:23.0 | And how are we going to get near him? |
| 0:24.4 | And gangster. |
| 0:25.5 | It was an organised hit in the middle of his heartland territory. |
| 0:29.8 | The Best of 2024 is here. |
| 0:32.1 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:34.6 | Welcome to The Inquiry with me, Tanya Beckett, from the BBC World Service. One question |
| 0:40.8 | for expert witnesses and an answer. It's a disease that will affect one in five people in our |
| 0:50.9 | lifetime and the number is growing. In fact, there are estimates that in 2025, |
| 0:56.7 | around 20 million people worldwide will be diagnosed with some form of cancer. But just as the |
| 1:04.2 | world of medicine has tackled many other diseases with the use of vaccines, it's becoming increasingly |
| 1:10.1 | hopeful that they could also become a means to treat cancer. |
| 1:14.8 | And moves are already afoot. |
| 1:17.1 | We'll return to our main story, which is about a groundbreaking new vaccine for melanoma skin cancer, which is being trialled in the UK. |
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