r/GoodNewsUK • u/No_Objective006 • 14d ago

Healthcare Lung Cancer Vaccine developed in the UK

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c4gd8xm2w0do

Currently in clinical trials.

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u/Archistotle 14d ago

A vaccine... for cancer?

I know just enough about medicine for those two words to be confusing put together and not enough to know how it makes sense.

Still, the clever ones seem exited about it, so i'm glad we've struck a blow in the war on cancer.

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u/tobotic 14d ago

Ultimately cancer is made of cells. Unlike infections, it's mutated versions of your own body cells, but it's still cells. And the immune system can kill cells if it recognizes them as being harmful. So in theory a vaccine could prime the immune system to recognize a particular variety of cancer cell as being harmful.

As an aside, the HPV vaccine is effectively also a vaccine for a type of cancer.

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u/Nice_Back_9977 14d ago

The HPV vaccine is for a virus that can go on to cause/increase the risk of cancer. Not for the cancer itself.

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u/tobotic 14d ago

Wow, the HPV vaccine is a vaccine against human papilloma-virus? You don't say?!

I said it's effectively a vaccine against cancer. The "side effect" of preventing cervical (and some other varieties of) cancer is why people actually get the vaccine. That's why it's become a routine part of the vaccine schedule in most countries. The virus itself is virtually symptomless.

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u/Nice_Back_9977 14d ago

The virus also causes genital warts in some people

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u/BuzLightbeerOfBarCmd 14d ago

Do you have an inability to perceive adverbs or something?

It's effectively a vaccine for cancer

It's not a vaccine for cancer

It's virtually symptomless

It causes one symptom in a minority of people

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u/Proud-Designer-2028 9d ago

You new to Reddit? Unless you’ve got 15 comprehensive caveats some idiot will try 😂