US research says mRNA vaccine against covid may help patients with some cancer live longer

Co-author Dr Adam Grippin said the researchers discovered that 'commercially available mRNA covid vaccines can train patients’ immune systems to eliminate cancer'.

People with some types of cancer lived longer if they received an mRNA vaccine against covid-19 than if they had not, a “really exciting” American research project has suggested. 

The mNRA vaccine is the same type of covid-19 vaccine that the HSE uses and is being offered as part of the winter vaccination campaign.

Patients with one type of lung cancer who got the mRNA vaccine saw survival rates almost double from 21 months to 37 months, the study published in the world's leading multidisciplinary science journal Nature found.

Unvaccinated skin cancer patients survived on average for 27 months, while vaccinated patients lived 30 to 40 months, with some still alive after the four-year study period. 

The research team also noted that people with tumours unlikely to respond to immunotherapy treatments saw the biggest improvement in survival rates. 

Co-author Dr Adam Grippin said the researchers discovered that "commercially available mRNA covid vaccines can train patients’ immune systems to eliminate cancer".

He suggested this could lead to “massive improvements” in survival rates for some patients.

“The really exciting part of our work is that it points to the possibility that widely available, low-cost vaccines have the potential to dramatically improve the effectiveness of certain immune therapies,” he said.

It meant some cancer patients who had this type of jab within 100 days of starting immunotherapy treatment were twice as likely to be alive three years after treatment as patients who never had shots. 

The results were so positive that a Phase III trial is now underway to examine whether mRNA covid vaccines should become a standard part of immunotherapy.

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center project looked at health records from over 1,000 patients treated between 2019 and 2023 in an observational study.

Dr Grippen, senior resident in Radiation Oncology at the centre, said he is “hopeful” this discovery will lead to better results for patients having immunotherapy.

The advanced non-small cell lung cancer group included 180 patients who received either a Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccine. They had a median survival of 37.33 months. This compares to 20.6 months in 704 patients who did not receive a vaccine.

The metastatic melanoma (skin cancer) group included 167 unvaccinated patients with a median survival of 26.67 months. This compares with 43 patients receiving a vaccine, some of whom were still alive after the study finished. 

Patients with tumours described as immunologically cold saw “a nearly five-fold improvement in three-year overall survival”, the centre said.

The study "SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines sensitize tumours to immune checkpoint blockade" was presented at the 2025 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress this week.