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Revolutionary Cancer Vaccine Administered as Part of Global Trial

Scientists are using the mRNA technology behind COVID jabs to create new vaccines that could treat and even cure cancer
Scientists are using the mRNA technology behind COVID jabs to create new vaccines that could treat and even cure cancer
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Revolutionary Cancer Vaccine Administered as Part of Global Trial

Scientists are using the mRNA technology behind COVID jabs to create new vaccines that could treat and even cure cancer
Scientists are using the mRNA technology behind COVID jabs to create new vaccines that could treat and even cure cancer

The first UK patients have received a “revolutionary” cancer vaccine as part of a global trial.

Scientists are using the mRNA technology behind COVID jabs to create new vaccines that could treat and even cure cancer, according to the British daily, The Telegraph.

The vaccine works by highlighting specific protein markers on the cells of a cancerous tumor to the immune system so that a patient’s own defenses kick in and attack the cancer, which would otherwise go undetected.

The trial is being led by scientists at Imperial College NHS Healthcare Trust and Imperial College London, which said it was the first in the UK to test the jabs, administering them to British patients at Hammersmith Hospital, in west London.

The study will assess the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine against lung cancer, skin cancer and other “solid tumors”, researchers said.

Victoria Atkins, the health secretary, said the “ground-breaking development” could make a difference to “countless lives”.

“The vaccine has the potential to save even more lives while revolutionizing the way in which we treat this terrible disease with therapies that are more effective and less toxic,” she said.

“It underlines our position as a life sciences superpower and our commitment to research and development,” she added.

“This research is still in the early stages and may be a number of years from being available to patients, but this trial is laying crucial groundwork that is moving us closer towards new therapies that are potentially less toxic and more precise.”

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Climate Change Causing More Change in Rainfall, Fiercer Typhoons, Scientists Say 

People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
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Climate Change Causing More Change in Rainfall, Fiercer Typhoons, Scientists Say 

People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)

Climate change is driving changes in rainfall patterns across the world, scientists said in a paper published on Friday, which could also be intensifying typhoons and other tropical storms.

Taiwan, the Philippines and then China were lashed by the year's most powerful typhoon this week, with schools, businesses and financial markets shut as wind speeds surged up to 227 kph (141 mph). On China's eastern coast, hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated ahead of landfall on Thursday.

Stronger tropical storms are part of a wider phenomenon of weather extremes driven by higher temperatures, scientists say.

Researchers led by Zhang Wenxia at the China Academy of Sciences studied historical meteorological data and found about 75% of the world's land area had seen a rise in "precipitation variability" or wider swings between wet and dry weather.

Warming temperatures have enhanced the ability of the atmosphere to hold moisture, which is causing wider fluctuations in rainfall, the researchers said in a paper published by the Science journal.

"(Variability) has increased in most places, including Australia, which means rainier rain periods and drier dry periods," said Steven Sherwood, a scientist at the Climate Change Research Center at the University of New South Wales, who was not involved in the study.

"This is going to increase as global warming continues, enhancing the chances of droughts and/or floods."

FEWER, BUT MORE INTENSE, STORMS

Scientists believe that climate change is also reshaping the behavior of tropical storms, including typhoons, making them less frequent but more powerful.

"I believe higher water vapor in the atmosphere is the ultimate cause of all of these tendencies toward more extreme hydrologic phenomena," Sherwood told Reuters.

Typhoon Gaemi, which first made landfall in Taiwan on Wednesday, was the strongest to hit the island in eight years.

While it is difficult to attribute individual weather events to climate change, models predict that global warming makes typhoons stronger, said Sachie Kanada, a researcher at Japan's Nagoya University.

"In general, warmer sea surface temperature is a favorable condition for tropical cyclone development," she said.

In its "blue paper" on climate change published this month, China said the number of typhoons in the Northwest Pacific and South China Sea had declined significantly since the 1990s, but they were getting stronger.

Taiwan also said in its climate change report published in May that climate change was likely to reduce the overall number of typhoons in the region while making each one more intense.

The decrease in the number of typhoons is due to the uneven pattern of ocean warming, with temperatures rising faster in the western Pacific than the east, said Feng Xiangbo, a tropical cyclone research scientist at the University of Reading.

Water vapor capacity in the lower atmosphere is expected to rise by 7% for each 1 degree Celsius increase in temperatures, with tropical cyclone rainfall in the United States surging by as much as 40% for each single degree rise, he said.