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Cancer Research UK funds University of Oxford scientists to develop ‘LynchVax’, the UK’s first vaccine aiming to prevent cancer in people with Lynch syndrome who have a much higher risk of developing several types of cancer.

Female doctor putting a plaster after vaccination

Lynch syndrome is a heritable genetic condition. It is caused by an altered copy of one of a small number of our genes involved in processes that help repair our DNA. Failure to repair DNA can cause damage in genes that control growth, increasing the risk of cancer. Around 175,000–200,000 people are estimated to have Lynch syndrome in the UK and fewer than 5% (around 10,000 people) have been diagnosed.

People with Lynch syndrome have a higher overall risk of developing bowel cancer, as well as other types of cancer including womb cancer (also known as endometrial cancer) and ovarian cancer. Lynch syndrome is estimated to cause around 3% of bowel cancer cases in the UK every year, many of them in people under the age of 50. Up to 7 in 10 people with Lynch syndrome will develop bowel cancer in their lifetime.

The Oxford scientists, led by Associate Professor David Church, have been awarded up to £550,000 by Cancer Research UK to carry out the underpinning work to test the potential of a vaccine for patients with Lynch syndrome.If proved successful, the vaccine could in the future prevent cancer from happening in people with Lynch syndrome, rather than treating it once the cancer has already taken hold.

The first steps will see the team analysing cells that are showing early signs of becoming cancerous (called “pre-cancers”) from people with Lynch syndrome. They will use this information to determine which parts of a pre-cancer can be attacked by the immune system and whether a vaccine approach is likely to work to prevent cancer. With this knowledge, the researchers believe they could potentially design a vaccine that teaches the immune system to recognise pre-cancer cells and destroy them before they become cancer.

Read the full story on the Oxford Centre for Cancer Early Detection and Prevention (OxCODE) website.