How the flu vaccine could double as a cancer treatment

A new use for the flu vaccine could one day save the lives of patients with the most dangerous type of skin cancer.

Ohio State researchers are injecting the influenza vaccine into melanoma patients before surgery as part of a new clinical trial designed to boost the body’s defenses against the skin cancer.

“It puts the entire immune system on high alert, and it is better able to recognize any foreign cells in the body, which in this case are the melanoma cells,” Carlo Contreras, MD, says.

Click to learn more about cancer immunotherapy at Ohio State.

According to Contreras — a skin cancer specialist and surgical oncologist at the OSUCCC – James — the goal of the therapy is not to treat the cancer directly, but to help the patients’ immune systems shrink their tumors before surgeries are performed.

Contreras shares all of the info on the clinical trial on our Cancer-Free World Podcast. Listen via the video player above, or on SoundCloud.

The trial, which began in 2022, enrolls patients in both early and late stages of melanoma. Researchers aren’t yet able to publicly discuss results, but they’re hopeful that influenza vaccine will one day be used around the world — especially in countries with high rates of poverty — to treat melanoma, and possibly other forms of cancer.

“Immunotherapy has become so important over the last five to 10 years,” Contreras says. “Immunotherapy boosts the patient's own immune system so it's better able to recognize and kill off melanoma tumor cells.”

Click to learn more about melanoma, including symptoms and treatment options at the OSUCCC – James.