What if We Could Outsmart Lung Cancer? Could a vaccine change our future?

What if We Could Outsmart Lung Cancer? Could a vaccine change our future?

From Backstage @ Upstage by Upstage Lung Cancer

January 16, 2026 · 39 min · Season 1 · Episode 53

About this episode

This episode explores the potential of vaccines in outsmarting lung cancer through immunotherapy.

HOST: Hildy Grossman CO-HOST, Jordan Rich Guests: Justin Gainor, MD, Director of Targeted Immunotherapy at the Massachusetts General Hospital and David Barbie, MD, Director of the Barbie Lab at Dana Farber Cancer Institute Targeting Innate Immunity in Cancer Lung cancer has long been one of the most complex and difficult cancers to treat. But what if we could outsmart it—not just with surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation, but by training the immune system itself? This episode explores a revolutionary question: Could a vaccine change the future of lung cancer? To shed light on answers to this question are Dr. Justin Gainor, whose interest is in vaccine development, and Dr. David Barbie, who returns to Backstage @ Upstage to explain how the immune system responds to cancer. Our renowned guests describe the challenges of creating a therapeutic vaccine and why a preventative vaccine is less likely to succeed. They detail how the immune system’s delicate operations need to be understood to successfully develop a vaccine to treat lung cancer. Moreover, you’ll want to hear about the groundbreaking promise of “personalized vaccines” tailored to an individual’s unique genomic…

People in this episode

Host: Hildy Grossman

Guests: Justin Gainor, MD, David Barbie, MD

Topics covered

  • lung cancer
  • immunotherapy
  • vaccine development
  • personalized medicine
  • cancer treatment
  • innate immunity

Keywords

  • lung cancer
  • vaccine
  • immunotherapy
  • personalized vaccines
  • cancer treatment
  • immune system
  • therapeutic vaccine

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Massachusetts General Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute

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