An experimental cancer vaccine can quickly reprogram a person's immune system to attack glioblastoma, the most aggressive and lethal form of brain cancer, a small, preliminary study has found.

A new mRNA vaccine candidate for aggressive brain cancer has shown promise in a small clinical trial – but it was a clinical trial with a twist. As well as testing the vaccine in a handful of human cancer patients, the researchers are also leveraging results from 10 pet dogs.

The cancer vaccine is based on mRNA technology similar to that used in COVID vaccines, but in this case a patient’s own tumor cells are used to create a personalized vaccine, researchers said. The vaccine teaches the immune system to see tumor cells as a dangerous virus,