# Cancer interception vaccines

Source: https://onco.cc/technologies/interception-vaccination/  
OnCo record `interception-vaccination` (Technology). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Cancer interception vaccines immunise people who do not yet have cancer but carry a high inherited risk, such as Lynch syndrome carriers, against the antigens their future tumour is predicted to express, so memory T cells remove transformed cells early. Because healthy people accept risk for a probabilistic benefit, the safety bar is far higher and trials take years.

## Summary

Lynch syndrome tumours share recurrent frameshift neoantigens, making a shared off-the-shelf vaccine possible; Nous-209 has been tested in Lynch carriers, and a preventive vaccine against alpha-lactalbumin is in early trials for triple-negative breast cancer at the Cleveland Clinic. The strategy asks a healthy person to accept risk for a probabilistic benefit, so the safety bar is far higher and trials need long follow-up with adenoma or lesion endpoints.

## Fields

- Kind: Technology
- Status: phase-2
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Tags: frontier; radical
- Principle: Immunising against antigens a future tumour is predicted to express creates memory T cells that eliminate transformed cells before a clinical cancer forms.
- Strengths: Intact immune system and zero tumour burden; Shared antigens allow an off-the-shelf product; Cost-effective even if only modestly effective
- Limitations: Long, expensive trials with surrogate endpoints; Very high safety bar in healthy people; Autoimmunity risk against self-antigens

## Sources

- ClinicalTrials.gov: Lynch syndrome vaccine: https://clinicaltrials.gov/search?term=Lynch%20syndrome%20vaccine

## Connected records

- cancers: [Colorectal cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/colorectal/), [Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)](https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc/)
- fronts: [Immunotherapy](https://onco.cc/fronts/immunotherapy/), [Prevention & Risk](https://onco.cc/fronts/prevention/)
- technologies: [Chemoprevention & risk-reducing surgery](https://onco.cc/technologies/chemoprevention/), [Germline (hereditary) testing](https://onco.cc/technologies/germline-testing/), [HPV & HBV vaccination](https://onco.cc/technologies/hpv-vaccine/), [Off-the-shelf cancer vaccines](https://onco.cc/technologies/shared-antigen-vaccine/)
- targets: [BRCA1 / BRCA2 (HRD)](https://onco.cc/targets/brca/)
- roadmaps: [Cancer prevention roadmap: tobacco control and vaccines → biomarker-guided chemoprevention → interception in carriers](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/prevention-roadmap/), [Paths to cures: interception, eradication, control](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/cure-paths/)
- key papers: [First trial of a vaccine against the shared neoantigens of mismatch-repair-deficient cancers](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-lynch-frameshift-vaccine-ccr-2020/)
- drugs: [HPV bivalent vaccine (types 16 and 18)](https://onco.cc/drugs/hpv-bivalent-vaccine/), [HPV quadrivalent vaccine (types 6, 11, 16 and 18)](https://onco.cc/drugs/hpv-quadrivalent-vaccine/)
- terms: [Ageing tissue and clonal fields: cancer as a disease of old tissue](https://onco.cc/terms/ageing-tissue-field-theory/)
- trials: [A Phase III Study to Evaluate the Efficacy, Immunogenicity and Safety of the 9-valent HPV Vaccine in Chinese Males](https://onco.cc/trials/nct06465914/), [Evaluate the Efficacy, Immunogenicity and Safety of 9-valent HPV Recombinant Vaccine in Chinese Healthy Females](https://onco.cc/trials/nct04422366/)

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