In October 2025, researchers from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Florida, Gainesville, published a study in Nature on cancer treatment. The study found that patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer or melanoma who received a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine within 100 days of starting immunotherapy had nearly double the survival time compared to those who did not receive the vaccine. This result has led to the planning of a phase III clinical trial to further study the effect of mRNA vaccines on cancer outcomes.
Dr. Rishabh Lohray, a first-year dermatology resident at Baylor College of Medicine, was a co-author of the study. He joined the research team through his cousin, Sage Copling, a third-year medical student and co-first author. Copling began working on the project at McGovern Medical School in Houston with Dr. Adam Grippin at MD Anderson. Lohray contributed to data collection and analysis as a medical student.
The research was based on earlier studies in mice, which showed that combining non-specific mRNA vaccines with immune checkpoint inhibitors produced a strong antitumor response. The team proposed that the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine could have a similar effect in humans when used with immunotherapy…