New vaccine 'could wipe out' ovarian cancer

The world’s first vaccine for ovarian cancer, being developed in the UK, could wipe out the disease, researchers have said.

Scientists at the University of Oxford are creating OvarianVax, a vaccine which teaches the immune system to recognise and attack the earliest stages of ovarian cancer.

Cancer Research UK is funding the study with up to £600,000 over the next three years.

Director of the university’s ovarian cancer cell laboratory Prof Ahmed Ahmed said they still had “a long way to go” but he was “very optimistic”.

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Scientists will create the vaccine in the lab with the aim of training the immune system to recognise the proteins on the surface of ovarian cancer, known as tumour-associated antigens.

They will then move to testing the vaccine in patients with the disease.

“The idea is, if you give the vaccine, these tiny tumours will hopefully either reduce, shrink really significantly, or disappear,” said Prof Ahmed.

The next stage would then be to include women with genetic mutations making them more likely to get ovarian cancer, and a wider general population of women without known disease, to see whether the vaccine could prevent the illness.

There are around 7,500 new ovarian cancer cases every year in the UK.

There is no screening test and it is often diagnosed late because the symptoms – such as bloating and no appetite – can be vague.

Genetic mutations put some women at a higher risk of developing the disease and, currently, women with certain genetic mutations are advised to have their ovaries removed before the age of 35.

Prof Ahmed said, if effective, the vaccine could remove the need for this.

Whilst the “full-blown timeline” for a vaccine being approved “might be many years away”, Prof Ahmed said, if the vaccine was successful, it could have an impact within the next five years.

“It is a really exciting time,” he said.

“I’m very optimistic.”