ISLAMABAD, July 10 — Vaccines and immunotherapies are transforming how medicine approaches both prevention and treatment, with a growing body of evidence showing the immune system can be trained to fight everything from smallpox to cancer. The story of vaccination begins in 1796, when Edward Jenner developed the first vaccine for smallpox. That breakthrough laid the foundation for a field that now prevents an estimated 2 to 3 million deaths annually worldwide, according to the WHO.
Modern vaccines come in several forms. Inactivated vaccines, like the polio vaccine Jonas Salk developed in 1955, use killed pathogens.
Live-attenuated vaccines, such as the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot licensed in 1971, use weakened versions. Subunit vaccines, including the hepatitis B vaccine approved in 1986, use only pieces of the germ. The newest category, mRNA vaccines, were authorized in December 2020 for COVID-19 from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated mRNA technology in a dramatic way. By 2023, over 13 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered globally.
That rapid development and deployment reshaped public expectations about how quickly vaccines can be created and distributed.
Immunotherapy: Turning the immune system against disease
While vaccines prevent illness, immunotherapy treats existing disease by harnessing the body’s own defences. This approach has shown particular promise in cancer care. Checkpoint inhibitors are one major class of immunotherapy drugs.
Ipilimumab, which blocks the CTLA-4 protein, was approved in 2011. Pembrolizumab, which targets PD-1, followed in 2014.
Both work by removing the brakes on T cells, allowing them to attack tumours more effectively. Another frontier is CAR-T cell therapy. This technique involves removing a patient’s T cells, engineering them in a lab to recognise cancer, and infusing them back into the body.
Tisagenlecleucel, sold as Kymriah, became the first FDA-approved CAR-T therapy in 2017 for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Monoclonal antibodies represent a third immunotherapy strategy.
Rituximab, approved in 1997 for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, is now used for both autoimmune diseases and cancer. The global vaccine market was valued at $54 billion in 2022, reflecting both the scale of existing prevention programmes and the investment in new technologies. What makes these approaches so powerful is their shared principle: they stimulate the adaptive immune system to produce memory cells without causing the disease itself.
Vaccines do this to prevent infection. Immunotherapies do it to treat disease that has already taken hold. The encouraging part for patients and doctors alike is that this field continues to expand.
Researchers are exploring combination therapies, personalised cancer vaccines, and ways to make CAR-T cells more effective against solid tumours. Early findings suggest that pairing checkpoint inhibitors with other treatments may improve outcomes.
But caution remains important. Immunotherapies can cause side effects, including inflammation in healthy organs, and not every patient responds. The science is advancing rapidly, but it is not a cure-all.
What patients should understand is that these treatments are now established options, not experimental hopes. The polio vaccine, the MMR shot, and the hepatitis B vaccine are routine.
Checkpoint inhibitors and CAR-T therapy are standard of care for certain cancers. Talk to your doctor about which vaccines you need and whether immunotherapy might be appropriate for your condition. The immune system is a powerful ally, but it works best when guided by medical expertise. Consult your doctor for medical advice.
