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LynchVax update: November 2026

3 minutes ago
5 min read
Medical professional talking to a patient who has just been given a vaccine.

The Oxford LynchVax team has published the latest issue of its newsletter (Issue 7, November 2026), and there is plenty of encouraging news for the Lynch syndrome community. The first part of the INTERCEPT-Lynch vaccine trial is now full, another Lynch syndrome vaccine is heading for a large international trial, and there is wider news from cancer vaccine research, both good and bad.xford LynchVax team has published the latest issue of its newsletter (Issue 7, November 2026), and there is plenty of encouraging news for the Lynch syndrome community. The first part of the INTERCEPT-Lynch vaccine trial is now full, another Lynch syndrome vaccine is heading for a large international trial, and there is wider news from cancer vaccine research, both good and bad.


INTERCEPT-Lynch: all Part 1 places are now filled

Part 1 of the INTERCEPT-Lynch trial is underway, and the team now has enough volunteers to fill every available Part 1 place.


Since the trial was announced in June, more than 100 people with Lynch syndrome have come forward to take part. The LynchVax team says it has been overwhelmed by the response and is very grateful to everyone who offered to help.


INTERCEPT-Lynch is testing an mRNA vaccine called mRNA-4194. The trial is sponsored by the University of Oxford, funded by Moderna and led by Professor David Church. Part 1 is a small, early-stage study. Its job is to check the vaccine is safe, see how the immune system responds and find the right dose for the next stage.


Part 2 is due to open in spring 2027

If you wanted to volunteer but found the places had gone, there will be more chances to get involved.


Part 2 of the trial is on track to open in spring 2027. It will recruit a further 80 to 120 people from several hospitals and research centres across the UK. The sites have not been confirmed yet. Once they are, the LynchVax team will share them with its mailing list, so you can see whether there will be a trial site near you. Details of how to join the mailing list are at the end of this article.


NOUS-209 vaccine secures funding for a Phase 3 trial

There is more good news on cancer prevention for people with Lynch syndrome. Nouscom, a biotechnology company, has raised €120 million (around £104 million) to take its experimental vaccine, NOUS-209, into the next stage of testing.


NOUS-209 is an "off-the-shelf" vaccine, meaning the same vaccine is given to everyone rather than being made for each person. It is designed to teach the immune system to recognise the abnormal proteins that appear in cells when DNA repair goes wrong, as it does in Lynch syndrome.


Early trials have shown the vaccine to be safe and able to trigger an immune response. New results were presented in October at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) conference by Professor Eduardo Vilar of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, USA. Nouscom reports that none of the people assessed so far developed advanced polyps or bowel cancer after one year (43 people) or two years (17 people). These are small numbers, though, and a much larger study is needed to show whether the vaccine actually prevents cancer.


The new funding will pay for a large international Phase 3 trial. Phase 3 is one of the last stages of testing before a new medicine can be considered for general use. It is likely to involve thousands of people and run for several years. Some participants are likely to be given a placebo (a dummy treatment), chosen at random, so researchers can compare the two groups and find out whether the vaccine prevents cancer.


A personalised mRNA vaccine shows strong results in melanoma

There has also been encouraging news from Moderna and MSD about a personalised mRNA cancer vaccine called intismeran.


Intismeran works differently from the Lynch syndrome vaccines. Rather than preventing cancer, it is for people who have already been diagnosed and treated, and aims to stop the cancer coming back. Each vaccine is made for one patient. Scientists study a sample of the person's tumour, find the DNA changes that make the cancer cells different from healthy cells, and use them to build a vaccine that trains the immune system to recognise and attack that particular cancer.

In a large Phase 3 trial in people with melanoma (a type of skin cancer), intismeran was given alongside the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab. The combination reduced the risk of the cancer returning by 42%. After two years, 82% of people who had both treatments were free from cancer, compared with 70% of those who had immunotherapy alone.


Personalised vaccines like this are now being tested in other cancers too, including lung cancer. Together, these results show the growing potential of mRNA technology to help the immune system fight cancer.


BioNTech stops its personalised bowel cancer vaccine trial

Not all cancer vaccine research brings good news, and learning what does not work is just as important as finding what does.


In August 2026, BioNTech stopped a Phase 2 trial of its personalised mRNA vaccine, autogene cevumeran. The vaccine was given to people who had had surgery for bowel cancer but still had signs of cancer DNA in their blood. An independent review of the results concluded the vaccine was unlikely to benefit patients in this group.


Unlike intismeran, autogene cevumeran was given on its own rather than alongside immunotherapy. The LynchVax team hopes the findings will help guide future vaccine studies. BioNTech is continuing to research the same vaccine in pancreatic cancer, where it is being given together with other cancer treatments.


What this means for people with Lynch syndrome

These are exciting times for cancer prevention research, but none of these vaccines are available yet. The Lynch syndrome vaccines are still being tested, and it will be several years before we know whether they work.


In the meantime, please keep going to your regular screening appointments and follow the advice of your genetics team. If you have questions about your own care, speak to your GP or genetics team.


Stay up to date with LynchVax

You can now read every past issue of the LynchVax newsletter on the LynchVax website. To receive future issues, including news of the Part 2 trial sites, email Sara Danielli at sara.danielli@medsci.ox.ac.uk.


The LynchVax team has thanked everyone with Lynch syndrome who has supported its research by sharing samples, taking part in studies, joining discussions and helping the researchers understand what matters most to the Lynch community. At Lynch Syndrome UK, we are proud to support the team and will keep sharing updates as the trial progresses.


This article is for information only and is not medical advice. We work hard to make sure it is accurate, but if you have questions about your health, please speak to your GP or genetics team.


Sources: LynchVax Newsletter (Issue 7, November 2026)

 
 
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