Geneva-based team announces new cancer treatment

A team from Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) and the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have developed a personalised therapeutic cancer vaccine. The team was awarded the Pfizer Biomedical Research Award 2026 for their work in Switzerland.

Genevan team reveals new cancer treatment

A Geneva-based team from HUG and UNIGE, both part of the Swiss healthcare system, has announced the results of a 15-year study on a new type of cancer treatment. The groundbreaking technology takes the form of a personalised therapeutic cancer vaccine.

The vaccine “combines patients’ own tumour cells with a powerful immune system stimulator, training the body to recognise and fight its own tumours,” according to a HUG press release. 

First, a sample is taken from a cancer tumour and is then irradiated while preserving antigens (molecules that mean the immune system can identify the tumour as hostile). The sample is then injected back into the patient as a unique vaccine.

Swiss-developed therapeutic cancer vaccine tested in humans

The treatment, named MVX-ONCO-1, has been successfully tested in humans. 34 people with tumours resistant to other cancer treatment types were treated using the vaccine. More than half “showed signs of clinical benefit, ranging from disease control to prolonged survival,” reports 20 Minuten.

While the results do not yet translate to proof of large-scale effectiveness, they “pave the way for a new generation of cancer immunotherapies” that could be used by doctors and in hospitals.

"There is still much to be done! We now need to test this technology on larger cohorts, at earlier stages of the disease, and combine it with other existing treatments. But we are starting from a solid foundation," said Nicolas Mach, head physician of the Cancer Centre at HUG.