The oncologist named the time frame for evaluating the effect of the cancer vaccine

Oncologist Evgeny Cheremushkin in an interview with aif.ru On Thursday, April 2, he explained that the first assessments of the effectiveness of a domestic personalized cancer vaccine could be carried out in a few months.

An important event took place in Russian oncology: the first patient received a cancer vaccine. This was reported by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. Treatment began on April 1. The patient was a 60-year-old man from the Kursk region with a diagnosis of skin melanoma.

It is noted that the drug is created individually for a specific tumor, actually setting up the immune system to fight the disease. In the future, such a vaccine is planned to be made available to a wide range of patients — it can be obtained free of charge under the compulsory medical insurance policy.

According to Cheryomushkin, rapid results, as with chemotherapy, should not be expected: the effect develops gradually, so changes will be monitored approximately every two months, and the first conclusions can be drawn approximately by the fourth month of treatment, and much depends on the individual body response.

The expert also noted that the choice of melanoma as the first target is not accidental: this type of cancer is better suited to immunotherapy than others, whereas standard treatment methods in this case often turn out to be less effective.

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Injections complement standard therapy, forming a comprehensive approach to cancer treatment.

On April 1, the press service of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation reported that the procedure was performed at the National Medical Research Center (NMIC) of Radiology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, a man with skin melanoma was injected with the antitumor mRNA vaccine "Neoonkovak".

The patient's skin cancer was detected back in 2021 and an operation was performed at the same time. In 2025, the disease returned with metastases to the lymph nodes, after which the doctors of the National Research Medical Center of Radiology performed a second surgical intervention, the website clarifies. kp.ru . The patient is currently undergoing immunotherapy.

As noted by the Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko, this is not a panacea, but an additional tool in the hands of oncologists. 360.ru . The vaccine is aimed at treating melanoma, a malignant neoplasm that most often arises from skin pigment cells that produce melanin. The vaccine helps the immune system recognize and destroy tumor cells. With successful results of its use in melanoma, the center plans to consider expanding the indications.

At the same time, Denis Logunov, director of the N.F. Gamalei Research and Development Center, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that a complex for the production of mRNA vaccines for both oncological and infectious diseases was operating on the territory of the Gamalei Center.

Andrey Kaprin, Chief oncologist of the Ministry of Health, Director General of the National Research Medical Center of Radiology, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, announced at the end of February the development of a domestic vaccine against pancreatic cancer, IA Regnum notes.

Earlier, Alexander Ginzburg, the scientific director of the Gamaleya Center, said that the effectiveness of the Russian melanoma vaccine exceeds 90%. In January, the preparation of the first patients began: they were diagnosed, on the basis of which the drug is manufactured, according to NSN.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.