The University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical company Moderna have jointly developed a vaccine that aims to protect people who are at high risk of bowel and ovarian cancer. However, the vaccine has yet to go through the trial phase.

According to experts, the vaccine is based on mRNA technology and in the future the same technology can also be used to prevent other types of cancer.

The research is specifically focused on patients with Lynch syndrome. This is a hereditary disorder that significantly increases the risk of several types of cancer, including bowel, uterine, ovarian, stomach, pancreas, kidney and skin.

According to statistics, about one in every 300 people in England suffers from Lynch syndrome. But only five percent of people know that they have the disease. While around 1,100 cases of bowel cancer are diagnosed in England each year due to Lynch syndrome.

The condition can increase the risk of developing bowel cancer in a lifetime by around 80%.

The trial, which begins this summer, will try to find out whether the vaccine, called mRNA-4194, can enable the human immune system to recognise and kill pre-cancerous cells before they develop into actual cancer.

The trial’s leader and research fellow at the University of Oxford, David Church, said the aim of the study was to train the immune system through the vaccine to recognise abnormal cells and stop them before they become cancerous.

He added that the mRNA vaccine actually acts as a guide for the body, telling the immune system which pre-cancerous cells to attack.