They respond well to high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy. The role of AI in fighting stubborn, life threatening diseases is growing.
Now Russia has announced a new vaccine that is personalised to individual patient to treat cancerous cells.
It is mRNA based vaccine designed to treat cancer. An mRNA treatment in this case teaches the human natural immunity how to destroy cancerous cells.
This article looks at this Russian scientific breakthrough that has a potential to relieve us from the burden of treating cancer patients deploying conventional preventive and curative methodologies.
The personalised vaccine, which uses genetic material derived from a patient’s tumour, will cost the state approximately 300,000 rubles (USD 2,869) per dose.
The announcement was made by Andrey Kaprin, head of the Russian Radiology Medical Research Centre of the Ministry of Health.
“This vaccine aims to treat cancer patients rather than prevent tumour formation,” Kaprin stated.
Customised vaccine will take time to develop because it is personalised to each and every individual cancer patient.
A matrix based mathematical methods are used to incorporate components of the patient’s tumour to train the immune system to identify and attack cancer cells.
It helps the body recognise unique proteins, known as antigens, found on the surface of cancer cells. Once introduced, these antigens stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies, enabling it to target and destroy cancer cells effectively.
The new vaccine mirrors similar efforts underway in Western nations to create personalised cancer treatments.
In the United States, researchers at the University of Florida recently tested an individualised vaccine on patients with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
The vaccine showed promising results, triggering a robust immune response within two days of injection.
Meanwhile, in the UK, scientists are trialling a personalised vaccine for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Early findings indicate improved survival rates.
Cancer attacks multi antigens, and is difficult to combat but new AI based technologies offer potential solutions.
If the trials in Russia are successful the vaccine will be available for global usage.
It will be free in Russia but will definitely cost something outside Russia, and expect pharmaceutical companies to produce generic vaccines under licence in order to lower the cost that the medicine can reach many nations.
In developing countries like Tanzania, cancer is weighing heavily on the health of citizens.
If you go to cancer treatment hospitals like Ocean Road the first thing you notice is that there are many more patients than hospital beds.
The challenge is identification of many patients who come too late.
The habit of annual screening is not part of our DNA. Majority of cancer patients go to hospital when it has spread and they struggle or fail to perform basic functions.
Treatment involving chemotherapy, drugs and injections are not cheap, battering the road to recovery.
Tanzania cancer situation is as follows: Cancer ranks as one of the foremost non-communicable diseases in Tanzania, with cervical, breast, and prostate cancer emerging as the three most prevalent types.
The Tanzania Comprehensive Cancer Care Project (TCCP), an innovative initiative spearheaded by the Aga Khan Health Service, Tanzania (AKHS,T) organizes complimentary screening camps in targeted regions across Dar es Salaam and Mwanza.
These endeavours are in alignment with government efforts aimed at early cancer detection.
The TCCP team employs mobile clinics to reach and serve remote, underserved communities effectively. During their most recent mission from the 17th to the 27th of August, the TCCP team visited Sengerema, an isolated district in Mwanza, and Buchosa councils.
They provided screening for cervical, breast, and prostate cancer to 1,291 individuals in these locations.
Over the past five years or so, the incidence of cancer has shown a noticeable increase.
In 2022, the country witnessed more than 26, 000 cancer related deaths.
However, it is essential to recognize that early diagnosis and prompt treatment can prevent 30-50% of all cancer cases when the cancer has not yet spread throughout the body.
Sadly, late diagnoses contribute to a higher rate of registered cancer deaths in Africa compared to the incidence of cancer itself, a contrast to other global regions.
Because patients are often diagnosed at advanced stages, a significant 80-90% of cancer cases are identified when the disease has already progressed, resulting in substantially lower survival rates.
Furthermore, Cancer takes a toll on patients’ quality of life, as they frequently endure distress, pain, and other side effects from their treatments.
The economic burden of cancer is substantial, affecting both the patients and healthcare system due to the high cost of treatment.
At the societal level, cancer can hinder workplace productivity through disease-related absenteeism. However, with the prevention efforts of the Tanzania Cancer Care Project (TCCP), patients could experience shorter treatments periods, faster recoveries, and improved survival rates.
This initiative holds the potential to alleviate the impact of cancer on both individuals and society as a whole.
How cancer is prevailing in Tanzania?
On 26th September, 2022 WHO in Tanzania participated in a symposium where the Lancet Oncology Commission launched a report on situation of Cancer in sub-Saharan Africa.
Africa’s cancer explosion is attributable to external and internal factors, including infections, changing population demographics, behavioral changes, environmental exposures, and genetics.
According to the report, in Africa, cancers associated with infections, including liver cancer (Hepatitis B and C viruses), cervical cancer (human papillomavirus), and Kaposi sarcoma (human herpesvirus 8), comprised 27% of all incident cancers in 2018—the highest percentage of any WHO region.
It is estimated that more than 1.1 million people in Africa will be dying from cancers annually in 2030 if the current growth of cancers is not checked.
Cancers constitute a significant share of a growing burden of non-communicable disease in Africa, with cancers resulting from infectious diseases being at the highest level compared to other regions of the world.
The report outlines solutions including establishing robust cancer registries, creating effective cancer control plans, incorporating cancer care into universal health coverage, early cancer screening and detection, incorporating palliative care in the cancer care pathway, building and retraining oncology workforces, investing in cancer research and telemedicine.
In Tanzania cancer is the fifth leading cause of death among men and the second among women, with the most common cancers including cervical carcinoma, breast cancer, prostate carcinoma and other gynaecological cancers.
HDR brachytherapy involves a miniaturized encapsulated radioactive source being placed directly into or near the volume to be treated, allowing a high radiation dose to be delivered locally to a tumour with a sharp dose fall-off outside the tumour. Use of this type of treatment is generally limited to small, well-localized tumours and minimizes radiation effects on other tissues.
Cervical cancer affects more than 10, 000 women per year in Tanzania, according to the Global Cancer Observatory.
Brachytherapy is an essential component in the treatment of this type of tumour, and the IAEA is committed to providing technical support to the country in order to enhance their brachytherapy programme.
The IAEA’s Rays of Hope initiative began on World Cancer Day 2022 with seven “first wave” countries, including Benin, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, and Senegal. Tanzania is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Rays of Hope initiative, which will reinforce enhanced cancer management in the country.
The IAEA’s Rays of Hope initiative aims to improve access to cancer care by helping countries establish or expand their radiotherapy and medical imaging capabilities.
Tanzania has received training and radiotherapy machines from the IAEA to help treat cancer patients. For example, the IAEA has helped doctors in Mwanza, Tanzania, treat cancer patients without having to travel over 1,200 km for treatment.
The IAEA has also provided training to Tanzanian cancer care professionals in advanced radiotherapy.
Skepticism with Russian vaccination claims.
Russian vaccination initiatives are not without controversies.
The Russian mode of operation defies western logic and commonsense, and as a result have attracted skepticism towards their efficacies. A history recall could offer some insight here.
In August 2020, Russian officials hailed the launch of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine as a major victory for Russian science, innovation, and diplomacy.
They claimed Russia had trumped the West by bringing an effective two-shot vaccine to the global market faster and that the breakthrough would reverberate worldwide.
Twelve months later, Sputnik V has failed to live up to the hype, and its developers at the state-run Gamaleya Institute in Moscow and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the country’s sovereign wealth fund, were growing uneasy under global scrutiny.
Data published in the UK medical journal The Lancet indicate that the Sputnik V vaccine is safe, boosts survival rates of people infected, and slows transmission of the deadly disease.
However, lingering questions about data discrepancies and the lack of transparency caused an international group of scientists to question the findings in an open letter to the journal.
Part of the problem is that the Gamaleya Institute rushed through clinical trials to get it on the market before all others, raising questions about the vaccine’s safety and slowing important regulatory approvals from the EU and the WHO.
Distribution in Russia and neighboring countries as well as exporting of the vaccine was hampered by production problems and a failure to manage global supply chains.
International sales and distribution were increasingly overshadowed by reports of inflated prices and corruption allegations.
Customers in various countries claimed their money back for overpriced or undelivered supplies. Worse, COVID-19 was ravaging the Russian people in yet another deadly wave that summer, due in large part to Russian citizens’ own vaccine hesitancy and questions about Sputnik V’s efficacy—issues that Moscow’s rush to be first in the world helped to create.
Similar concerns in the new cancer vaccine have been raised. Vaccine inventions from Russia have been questioned over lack of details and scientific transparency.
Some may say it is to protect their intellectual property rights against piracy. The announcement did not specify types of cancer that could be treated by the new vaccine.
The impression that is now created albeit unintentionally is the vaccine was a panacea to all forms of cancer.
That can be possible because the entry of AI in treating cancer adds a new dimension that conventional wisdom, is unfamiliar.
What is said every patient will receive personalised cancer treatment implying that whatever types of cancer one has will be treated.
It is the human body of cancer patient that is provided with instructions on how to kill the cancerous cells. If this is true then we may soon have a jack and a master of all cancers! That will be a remarkable achievement, to say the least.
Skeptics have assailed upon the name of the cancer vaccine is unknown but since it has not been unveiled may be a little patience is all that is needed here.
Details of its development process has been a well guarded secret to prevent intellectual piracy.
The controversy centred on why calling it a cancer vaccine while it will not prevent cancer but treats it is a red flag.
If it is a cure not prevention then does not qualify to be called a vaccine but a medicine to treat cancer.
While it is too earlier to celebrate this Russian cancer vaccine as a new milestone, in earlier 2025 once unveiled should give more light on its efficacy, affordability and accessibility will follow thereafter.
Read more about Vaccination Controversies in the US: What It Means for Tanzania’s Health Future
