October 22, 2025

expert reaction to study on COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and immune response to cancer in immunotherapy

A study published in Nature looks at COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and the immune response to tumours during immunotherapy. 

Prof Andrew Beggs, MRC Senior Clinical Fellow and Consultant Colorectal Surgeon, University of Birmingham, said:

““The authors looked to understand the effects of the receipt of a SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine and the response to a type of treatment called immunotherapy. Immunotherapy stimulates the body to attack the tumour as “foreign” and their research showed that being given a vaccine within 100 days of the immunotherapy turbo-charged their response to treatment, giving much longer survival from their cancer. They replicated this finding in animal models, showing it is likely to be genuine, and not an effect caused by another phenomenon, such as the protection from serious respiratory illness from COVID infection.”

Dr Lennard Lee, Associate Professor – Cancer vaccines, University of Oxford, said:

“This is an intriguing finding, yet we should be cautious before drawing conclusions. Patients who are well enough to receive a vaccine are often those already doing better, which makes it hard to separate cause from coincidence. Only a randomised trial can tell us whether the vaccine itself drives the effect.”

Prof Stephen Griffin, Professor of Cancer Virology, University of Leeds, said:

“This remarkable paper describes an unforeseen benefit from COVID mRNA vaccines. A specific group of cancer patients receiving the vaccines within 100 days of beginning immunotherapy treatment were observed to gain significant benefit in terms of survival and disease progression.

“This is particularly interesting as this only applied to tumours that are amongst those most difficult to treat because the immune system struggles to detect or act against them in the majority of people; tumours are, after all, derived from our own cells. This means that even cancer immunotherapy, which “removes the brakes” from our immune system, struggles to act as there is so little existing response to augment; these are termed “immunologically cold” tumours.

“However, the potent immune stimulation caused by the COVID vaccine stimulates the “innate” immune system (i.e. that doesn’t target a specific protein “antigen” but responds to broad “molecular patterns”) to produce chemical signals known as interferons, which have protective roles in fighting both viruses and cancers. This is also the response that can cause sore shoulders and mild fevers following vaccination. These interferons enable the adaptive (antigen targeted) immune system to now recognise and invade the tumours, and this is then further augmented by the immunotherapy.

“Importantly, this effect is not to do with the “targeting” of SARS-CoV-2 by the vaccines, but instead the effect on the broader innate immune response that forms a platform for our immune system to “switch on”, in this instance to target a malignant tumour. Other “innate immunotherapies” are under development, including ligands that stimulate the innate response and even disabled viruses that do the same.”

‘SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines sensitize tumours to immune checkpoint blockade’ by Adam J. Grippin et al. was published in Nature at 16:00 UK time on Wednesday 22 October. 

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09655-y

Declared interests

Prof Andrew Beggs: No relevant declarations.

Dr Lennard Lee: No declarations of interest.

Prof Stephen Griffin: Co-chair, independent SAGE