Vietnam will receive cancer vaccines from Japan in the near future, Prof Dr Ta Thanh Van, Rector of the Hanoi Medical University (HMU) told Lao Dong newspaper.

 Vietnam will receive cancer vaccines from Japan in the near future,
Prof Dr Ta Thanh Van, Rector of the Hanoi Medical University (HMU)
told Lao Dong newspaper (Illustrative photo: laodong.vn)

The vaccine, which treats existing cancer, is a key part of the university’s cancer prevention research to be deployed.

Antigens from the tumour of the patients will be taken out and processed, then brought back to the patients’ bodies to stimulate the creation of antibodies, he explained.

Van said cancer vaccines have already been applied in some hospitals in Japan and proved effective against several types of cancer.

The HMU will launch the vaccines in Vietnam after receiving approval from the Ministry of Health, he added. 

More than 300,000 Vietnamese patients are struggling with cancer, said Director of the Vietnam National Cancer Hospital (Hospital K) Tran Van Thuan.

In addition, about 165,000 new cases of cancer and 115,000 deaths due to the disease are reported in Vietnam annually.

Each year, Vietnamese people spent some 2 billion USD on medical treatment, mostly on cancer, in foreign countries.