This is the Guardian. Glioblastomas are an extremely aggressive and fast growing type of brain tumor.

The average survival time after diagnosis is just 12 to 18 months,

which is why the news of a vaccine that has shown promise in fighting

glioblastoma is so exciting.

The trial was conducted in just four people, but the

researchers found that the MRNA vaccine rapidly reprogrammed the immune system

to attack the tumors.

And this comes right off the back of the announcement of another trial of the world's first personalized for melanoma, a kind of skin cancer.

The treatment which uses the same MRNA technology as some COVID-chabs

works by telling the body to hunt down cancer cells

and prevent them from coming back.

Vaccines that can prompt our bodies to fight cancerous cells is a thrilling prospect,

and the development of these life-changing therapies is now making serious ground.

So today on Science Weekly, how do these vaccines work?

And could they one day cure cancer altogether? I'm the Guardian Science Editor Ian Sample and this is Science Weekly.

Professor Alan Melcher, you're a clinician scientist at the Institute of Cancer Research in London

where you study how to activate the immune system so that it recognizes and attacks cancer cells.

This is such fascinating work.

Can you give me some background first?

I mean, how long have research has been trying to deploy the immune system to fight cancer.

So we've known for a very long time that the immune system can attack your cancer,

but how to direct it to do so in a safe and logical scientific way if you like has

...