A nanoparticle vaccine has shown great promise in preventing three types of cancer in mice, as well as stopping tumors from spreading when they were exposed to cancerous cells. 

Cancer vaccines have moved from the sci-fi dream realm into actual scientific possibility within just a few short decades. We’re not just talking about the HPV vaccine, incredible though its success has been at preventing cases of cervical cancer. A vaccine against a virus, albeit one that causes cancer, is easier to conceptualize – we get vaccinated against tons of other viruses, after all. 

But vaccinating against a non-infectious disease like cancer, with all its complex causes and different presentations, is much harder to wrap your head around – making this latest study perhaps even more impressive. 

Researchers led by a team at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed a nanoparticle-based vaccine that has previously been shown to shrink and clear cancerous tumors in mice. Now, they’ve demonstrated it can also work to prevent three types of cancer: pancreatic cancer, melanoma, and triple-negative breast cancer.