COVID vaccines may help cancer treatments work better: Study
A fresh study out in Nature (Wednesday October 22, 2025) suggests that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna could actually help cancer treatments work better.
Patients with advanced lung or skin cancer who got these vaccines within 100 days of starting immunotherapy saw higher survival rates.
As Dr. Adam Grippin from MD Anderson Cancer Center puts it, the mRNA tech seems to kick the immune system into higher gear against tumors.
Lung cancer patients almost doubled their 3-year survival rate
The study, led by MD Anderson and the University of Florida, looked at nearly 1,000 patients and found that vaccinated lung cancer patients almost doubled their three-year survival rate.
This has researchers excited about pairing mRNA vaccines with other treatments like checkpoint inhibitors.
Dr. Jeff Coller from Johns Hopkins said the research offers "a very good clue" that maybe an off-the-shelf approach could work, and that "mRNA medicines are continuing to surprise us in how beneficial they can be to human health."
Flu shots didn't have the same effect
Interestingly, regular flu shots didn't have the same effect—only the mRNA COVID vaccines made tumors more responsive to treatment.
This highlights how unique and promising mRNA technology could be as a boost alongside current cancer therapies.