The Russian Health Ministry has announced that it has developed a new mRNA vaccine for cancer treatment. The vaccine, which is expected to be available to patients free of charge in early 2025, will be used to help treat cancer rather than prevent it.

Andrey Kaprin, the head of the Radiology Medical Research Centre of the Russian Ministry of Health, confirmed that this breakthrough vaccine was developed in Russia. The vaccine will be provided to cancer patients as part of their treatment.

The vaccine is set to be launched in general circulation in early 2025. Alexander Gintsburg, Director of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, told TASS that the vaccine’s pre-clinical trials have shown promising results. The trials indicated that the vaccine helps suppress tumour development and prevents potential metastases.

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently stated that Russian scientists are close to creating a cancer vaccine. In televised remarks in February, he shared that the country has made significant progress, saying, "We have come very close to the creation of so-called cancer vaccines and immunomodulatory drugs of a new generation." This vaccine is expected to be available to patients shortly.

Although it is not yet confirmed which specific vaccine will be used to treat cancer or what it will be called, other countries, including Britain, are also working on similar projects. The British government has stated that it is in contact with the German-based BioNTech company to develop personalized cancer treatments.

Gintsburg also said that using artificial neural networks could reduce the time needed to create a personalized cancer vaccine to under an hour. Right now, it takes a long time because scientists use complex mathematical methods to design the vaccine. By using AI, specifically neural networks, the Ivannikov Institute aims to speed up this process to just 30 minutes to an hour.

Meanwhile, drug companies Moderna and Merck & Co are working on a cancer vaccine that has been shown in mid-stage studies to lower the risk of melanoma (a deadly skin cancer) recurrence or death by 50% after three years of treatment.

According to the World Health Organization, there are licensed vaccines that protect against human papillomaviruses (HPV), which cause various cancers, including cervical cancer. Also, these vaccines are available to protect against hepatitis B (HBV), a virus that can lead to liver cancer.