Question

If we can make RNA vaccines against COVID-19 and we know which errors in our DNA leads to different kinds of cancer, can we make a vaccine that will teach our immune system to detect and destroy cancer cells?

Answer 1

Yes, it is possible to develop a vaccine that can teach our immune system to detect and destroy cancer cells.

Step-by-step explanation:

Yes, it is possible to develop a vaccine that can teach our immune system to detect and destroy cancer cells. Cancer vaccines work by stimulating the body's immune response against cancer cells, similar to how vaccines stimulate the immune response against viruses or bacteria. These vaccines are designed to target tumor-specific antigens and enhance the body's natural ability to recognize and attack cancer cells.

This includes treatments that utilize treated cancer cells or tumor-specific antigens to stimulate the immune system, potentially prolonging patient survival and targeting cancer cells precisely. While RNA vaccines for viruses like COVID-19 use self-replicating RNA or mRNA to produce immunogenic proteins, the idea is somewhat similar for cancer vaccines, where the immune system learns to attack mutations from the patient's own cells. These cancer vaccines are generally still in the experimental phase, but they show considerable promise in harnessing the immune system's ability to identify and eliminate cancerous cells. Several clinical trials have achieved positive results with vaccines for malignant melanoma and renal cell carcinoma.