I am not a young pup. Yet, pretty much my entire life, people have been talking about finding a cure for cancer.

Considering how many wonderful, amazing, and loved human beings have been taken out by the merciless disease, it’s no wonder we’ve never stopped trying.

And while a cure is still in various stages of research and development, scientists believe a vaccine is ready for human trials.

The United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) is fast-tracking patients for it’s upcoming vaccine trials, claiming that each jab will be tailored to one’s individual needs.

Eligible patients will have to sign off on having their blood and tissues sampled in order to qualify for the cutting-edge mRNA technology.

The founders of BioNTech say they expect a cancer vaccine to be ready "before 2030."

The shot would repurpose mRNA technology used in the COVID-19 vaccine to recognize and attack cancer cells. pic.twitter.com/2tDTSCiqvU

— The Recount (@therecount) October 17, 2022

mRNA was the type of vaccine pioneered by Pfizer during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The program, called the Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad, has already enrolled patients with bladder, colorectal, kidney, lung, skin, and pancreatic cancers. NHS England head Amanda Pritchard says they plan to add more as the program progresses.

“As more of these trials get up and running at hospitals across the country, our national matchmaking service will ensure as many eligible patients as possible get the opportunity to access them.”

The NHS program is working with German vaccine maker BioNTech, whose COVID-19 vaccines paved the way for this technology to be applied on a much wider basis.

At a recent conference, BioNTech is also planning to present preliminary evidence that measuring circulating tumor DNA could help detect colorectal cancer earlier.

It killed more than 930,000 people in 2020.

The program’s first patient, Elliot Pfebve, found out he had colorectal cancer during a routine doctor’s appointment. Her had no symptoms.

He had his tumor and part of his large intestine removed before undergoing chemotherapy before entering this pilot program. He was the first patient to get a jab.

The trial’s principal investigator, Victoria Kunene, is extremely hopeful about the outcomes.

“Based on the limited data we currently have of the in-body response to the vaccine, this could prove to be a significant and positive development for patients, but more data is yet needed and we continue to recruit suitable patients to the trial to establish this further.”

The trial’s first patient is, probably predictably, excited at the potential outcome of his jab as well.

“Being part of this trial has been a really important decision in my life, both for me and my family. Having been through the difficulty of diagnosis and debilitating chemotherapy, it felt wonderful to be able to take part in something which could lead to a new way of treating cancer, and if others can benefit from what the trial might discover, then that’s great, too.”

For anyone whose lives have been touched by cancer, this could be a watershed moment.

One that’s been a long, long time coming.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about why we should be worried about the leak in the bottom of the ocean.