Cancer vaccine trials and planning for cyber attacks

Inside Health

BBC

Health & Fitness, Science

4.4 • 575 Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Trials of a cancer 'vaccine' have begun and presenter James meets Steve, one of the first patients to trial the new treatment, Steve remembers his shock at being diagnosed with colorectal cancer in his 40s and tells the story of how he became involved in this pioneering research into tackling cancer.

The vaccine is based on the same mRNA technology as the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and James heads to the University of Cambridge to find out how the early work into cancer vaccines became the foundation for the rapid rollout of the covid vaccine.

In the lab, molecular biologist Dr Anne Willis and immunologist Dr James Thaventhiran explain how the vaccine is personalised to target the unique make-up of an individual patients' cancer cells, and how if the trials are successful they could open the door to mRNA treatments being used to treat a wide range of diseases.

Also, Imperial College London cyber security researcher Dr Saira Ghafur joins James in the studio to explain why healthcare is a growing target for cyber attackers and how we can prepare for the next one because, as Saira says, it really is a case of "when" not "if".

Presented by James Gallagher Produced by Tom Bonnett with Hannah Robins Assistant Producer: Katie Tomsett Editor: Holly Squire

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Greg Jenna and good news, Your Dead to Me is back for a new series. Here we go. Yes, we'll explore Emperor Nero's notorious reign with Professor Marybeard and Patton Oswald. I would not want my daughter having the remote control, not alone an empire. We'll dissect the decadent life of Philippe Duke-Dor-Leon with Tom Allen. I've often tried to pretend I'm an aristocrat and being very
0:21.7	quickly knocked down. And there'll be so much more with comedians like Olga Koch, Mike Mosniak and Rihalina.
0:26.9	I'm excited. You're dead to me. The comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:34.5	BBC Sounds Music,, radio, podcasts.
0:37.6	Hello there, and welcome to the Inside Health podcast. I'm James Gallagher.
0:41.2	I've got two big questions for you today.
0:43.4	First, is this the future of cancer?
0:46.3	Every person with cancer will have their unique profile on their cancer cells.
0:51.0	And you then design the vaccine to actually target those specific differences.
0:56.0	And how vulnerable is the NHS to cyber attacks.
0:59.0	Major hospitals declare a critical incident after a cyber attack.
1:04.0	We have a doctor-combe-cise cybersecurity expert on what went wrong with the recent NHS cyber attack
1:09.0	and how we can plan for the next one.
1:11.4	But first, let's talk about cancer and a new type of therapy that's generating excitement
1:15.9	because I'm sure you'll have seen headlines about cancer vaccines.
1:20.2	Now, the name is a little bit misleading because vaccines are normally something that you take
1:25.6	to train the immune system to fight an infection before you ever get sick.
1:31.1	Cancer vaccines are different because they're used after you've been diagnosed,
1:36.2	and they're different as well because they train the immune system to attack your unique cancer.
1:41.7	So a new one has to be designed for each individual patient. And I met
1:47.8	Steve, who's one of the first people to get one on the NHS. Steve, when were you diagnosed with
1:54.2	cancer? Just to walk me through, what happened? Yeah, so this was back in November last year,
	...

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