immunotherapy

A 2025 observational analysis by MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Florida of nearly 1,000 advanced cancer patients receiving checkpoint inhibitor therapy found that patients who received a Pfizer or Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccine within 100 days of starting treatment had substantially longer survival; specifically, vaccinated lung cancer patients were nearly twice as likely to be alive three years after beginning cancer treatment compared with unvaccinated patients.

The 2025 study reported that among patients with immunologically "cold" tumors, adding an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine within about 100 days of starting immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy was associated with a nearly five-fold increase in three-year overall survival.

The 2025 study found that seasonal non-mRNA vaccines for influenza and pneumonia did not show the same tumor responsiveness or survival-associated effects as the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine when administered near the start of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy.

In 2025 preclinical mouse models reported alongside the clinical analysis, mice receiving a combination of immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs and an mRNA vaccine targeting the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein showed increased tumor responsiveness to immunotherapy compared with immunotherapy alone.

A 2025 study by researchers at the University of Osaka reported a protocol combining signaling molecules and other compounds that increases Foxp3 expression in induced regulatory T cells (iTregs), induces epigenetic modifications associated with Treg identity, and produced iTregs that maintained Foxp3 expression and provided immune-suppressive effects in mouse models for at least six weeks.