Russian specialists race to develop cancer vaccine

Rudaw’s Luna Khalid spoke to Alexander Petrovsky, head of the department of oncology and mammography at the N.N. Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center, about the research underway to create vaccines aimed at treating cancer. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said scientists in the country were close to developing vaccines for cancer that would soon be ready for patients. "I hope that soon they will be effectively used as methods of individual therapy," Putin said in a televised address from Moscow. 

Petrovsky spoke of the importance of “immunotherapy” and how vaccines fit into this category. He added that numerous scientists and laboratories around the world have been racing to find the cure for cancer. Petrovsky acknowledged that the road ahead remains difficult.