Oxford researchers have been awarded up to £600,000 from Cancer Research UK (CRUK) to create the world’s first vaccine to prevent ovarian cancer.
Scientists at the University of Oxford’s MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (MRC-WIMM), led by Professor Ahmed Ahmed, are designing OvarianVax, a vaccine which teaches the immune system to recognise and attack the earliest stages of ovarian cancer.
The team, whose work is supported by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), will receive up to £600,000 for the study over the next three years to support lab research into the vaccine.
In this study, the researchers will establish the targets for the vaccine. They will find out which proteins on the surface of early-stage ovarian cancer cells are most strongly recognised by the immune system and how effectively the vaccine kills mini-models of ovarian cancer, called organoids.
If this research is successful, work will then begin on clinical trials of the vaccine. The hope is that in the future, women could be offered this vaccine to prevent ovarian cancer in the first place.
Professor Ahmed said: “We need better strategies to prevent ovarian cancer. Currently, women with BRCA1/2 mutations, who are at very high risk, are offered surgery which prevents cancer but robs them of the chance to have children afterwards. At the same time, many other cases of ovarian cancer aren’t picked up until they are in a much later stage.
“Teaching the immune system to recognise the very early signs of cancer is a tough challenge. But we now have highly sophisticated tools which give us real insights into how the immune system recognises ovarian cancer.”
He added: “OvarianVax could offer the solution to prevent cancer, firstly in women at high risk but also more widely if trials prove successful. Thanks to this funding, our research can take a big step forward towards a viable vaccine for ovarian cancer.”
Read more on the Oxford Centre for Cancer Early Detection and Prevention’s website.