Just a few generations ago, childhood illnesses like measles and diphtheria ran rampant, and Americans were dying from infectious diseases like these and even seasonal flu at alarmingly high rates. Since the advent of robust and widespread vaccines against many of these illnesses, chronic conditions like cancer now cause the most mortality nationwide. What if vaccines against cancer could have the same success?
The idea of vaccinating against cancer isn't new-just challenging, because cancerous tumors have many tricks to avoid being seen as a target for the immune system. But today, after more than 50 years of federally funded research into the architecture of immunity, scientists have the clearest picture to date of how the immune system can fight off cancer before it takes root.
At the Basser Center for BRCA in Penn Medicine's Abramson Cancer Center, a quest for effective cancer prevention vaccines is one of the key priorities of the Basser Cancer Interception Institute, which was established in 2022 with a gift from Basser Center founders Mindy and Jon Gray that brought their total support to Basser to $115 million. Among the active efforts that have since begun to advance the science of stopping cancer before it can start, the center completed enrollment into a cancer vaccine clinical trial last year. The institute is funding research across other multiple cancer types, including breast, prostate, and ovarian cancer.
