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A cancer vaccine is the hope of mankind
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Experts have always claimed that it is easier to take preventive measures against a disease than to treat it later, so most researchers develop preventive drugs (vaccines) against various diseases. Cancerous tumors are no exception, and the development of such drugs is considered the most important direction of modern science.
Mikhail Agadzhanyan, a professor at the University of California, is also working on the creation of preventive drugs for cancer.
In a conversation with journalists, Mikhail Aghajanyan noted the difficulties that may arise in creating preventive drugs.
First of all, any vaccination should be done before the disease has started to develop. There are only two types of vaccines in the world that are done after the disease has started to progress, all others are considered preventive measures.
At the moment, creating a vaccine that could be administered to a healthy person and prevent the development of cancer seems to be an almost impossible task; there are many difficulties on the way to this. This is the reason why effective vaccines against cancer have not been created to date. There is one based on dendritic cells and special antigens, which was administered to patients at the last stage, as a result of which people's lives were extended by only a few months, which is extremely little, especially considering the cost of the drug ($90,000 per injection).
The company developing the vaccine was forced to suspend its work because the drug did not live up to expectations.
Mikhail Agadzhanyan's team is working on creating preventive drugs based on a certain type of antigens that are observed in the body at the stage of embryonic development and in oncological diseases.
Such antigens were discovered relatively recently by an American specialist, and as studies have shown, they are capable of influencing cell growth. According to preliminary data, a drug based on such cells will be quite effective. Agajannya expressed hope that clinical trials of the new drug could begin by the end of this year.
It is worth noting that the existing vaccine against cervical cancer is slightly different from the oncological vaccines that scientists from different countries are working on. According to experts, the drug does not protect against the development of cervical cancer, but against the virus that provokes the development of a malignant tumor, but there are very few types of cancer that depend on viruses.
Mikhail Agadzhanyan is also involved in developing drugs to prevent Alzheimer's, and according to him, his team has achieved good results in this area. The main difficulty with such a vaccine is that it should be made before the destructive processes in the brain begin, which is why all previous attempts to create drugs to prevent Alzheimer's have been unsuccessful.
The vaccine developed by Aghajanian's research group works by activating antibodies that remove amyloid proteins from the brain that cause cognitive impairment, and experts believe the drug will show good results in clinical trials.