A recent collection of data from a University of Florida study yielded results displaying cancer patients who received mRNA-based Covid vaccines within 100 days of starting immunotherapy treatments were twice as likely to be alive three years following the beginning of their treatment, according to a report from Reuters.¹

"The results from this study demonstrate how powerful mRNA medicines truly are and that they are revolutionizing our treatment of cancer," said Jeff Coller, Ph.D., leading mRNA expert at Johns Hopkins University.

What benefits does the mRNA Covid vaccine give patients using immunotherapies?

According to Reuters, 180 patients diagnosed with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who were administered with an mRNA-based covid vaccine displayed a median survival rate of 37.33 months.¹ Meanwhile, data collected from 704 patients who did not receive an mRNA Covid shot showed a median survival rate of 20.6 months.¹ Data was also collected across other patient populations, including data from 167 patients diagnosed with metastatic melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer. Results showed that half of the 167 patients who did not receive a vaccine had died by 26.67 months. Administering the vaccine to 43 melanoma patients resulted in more than half of the patient population remaining alive, which withheld researchers from calculating a median survival rate.¹

Additionally, survival improvements in the study were prominent in patients with tumors, who were not likely to respond well to immunotherapy due to low production of PD-L1.¹ The report says that patients experienced upwards of a five-times improvement in their three-year overall survival rates following the reception of an mRNA Covid vaccine.

Study coauthor Dr. Adam Grippin, The University of Texas MD, Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, touched on the findings, saying, “The really exciting part of our work is that it points to the possibility that widely available, low-cost vaccines have the potential to dramatically improve the effectiveness of certain immune therapies.”

Where did these results come from?

The results are built from a previous study from The University of Florida. The study’s analysis examined medical records from over 1,000 MD Anderson patients, although the results are still preliminary.¹ The study builds on eight years of research combining lipid nanoparticles with mRNA. Messenger RNA, or mRNA, is present in every cell and carries the instructions for making proteins. Upcoming randomized clinical trials hold the potential to confirm these results, with researchers suggesting that the impact of these findings may hold serious implications in future cancer treatments. The study results were presented on October 19, at the 2025 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Berlin.¹

"The implications are extraordinary––this could revolutionize the entire field of oncologic care," said senior researcher Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., a UF Health pediatric oncologist and the Stop Children's Cancer/Bonnie R. Freeman professor for pediatric oncology research. "We could design an even better nonspecific vaccine to mobilize and reset the immune response, in a way that could essentially be a universal, off-the-shelf cancer vaccine for all cancer patients."

Sources

1. Health Rounds: mRNA COVID vaccines appear to make immunotherapy cancer drugs work better Reuters October 22, 2025 https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/health-rounds-mrna-covid-vaccines-appear-make-immunotherapy-cancer-drugs-work-2025-10-22/
2. Cancer patients who got a COVID vaccine lived much longer University of Florida Ocotber 19, 2025 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/10/251019120503.htm