He’s promised to put Americans on Mars and end the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
But Donald Trump’s most impactful move could be to spearhead the world’s first cancer vaccine.
This week, amid a flurry of executive orders, the new president announced a $500billion venture he described as the ‘largest AI infrastructure project in history.’
The White House says Project Stargate will create tens of thousands of new jobs and usher in a new technological revolution.
But its biggest promise is finally producing cures for cancer, according to one of the AI bosses involved with the program.
Larry Ellison, chief technology officer at computer software company Oracle, said the technology could use simple blood tests to scan for tiny tumor cells, which neither humans nor current lab tests can detect.
This way, patients with the earliest forms of the disease could be identified and treated before the cancer spreads.
He continued: ‘Then beyond that, once we gene sequence that cancer tumor you can then vaccinate that person, design a vaccine for every individual person to vaccinate them against that cancer and you can make that mRNA vaccine robotically using AI in about 48 hours.’
He described curing cancers as ‘the promise of the future.’ Later in the press conference, Sam Altman, the boss of OpenAI which created ChatGPT, said AI will lead to the cure of diseases ‘at an unprecedented rate.’
Larry Ellison, chief technology officer at computer software company Oracle, spoke about his company’s potential cancer vaccine Tuesday at a White House gathering with President Donald Trump
Mr Ellison said a potential personalized cancer vaccine is ‘the promise of AI and the promise of the future’
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Altman said: ‘We will be amazed at how quickly we’re curing this cancer and that one and heart disease and what this will do for the ability to deliver very high quality healthcare… to cure the diseases at a rapid rapid rate.
‘I think [this technology] will be among the most important things.’
Similar experimental mRNA cancer vaccines have been in development since the technology was advanced during the Covid pandemic.
mRNA vaccines were thrust into the public sphere when Trump established Operation Warp Speed, a campaign to facilitate and accelerate the development and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines and treatments.
Trump faced anger from his base over his involvement in the mRNA Covid vaccines, which his administration bankrolled, and many Republicans and Trump supporters were resistant to the shots.
In mRNA cancer vaccines, scientists take a sample from a cancer patient’s tumor and analyze its genetic code – every tumor is genetically different, which means no two cancer vaccines are the same.
They then use part of this, called RNA, to develop a bespoke vaccine for the patient in a lab. When injected, the shot will deliver the instructions for the body’s cells to produce a harmless part of the tumor, provoking a response from the immune system.
This process trains the immune system to spot this element of the cancer in the future providing protection against the disease.
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Biden receiving his mRNA Covid shot in 2021
Traditional vaccines work on a similar principal, using a small or weakened part of a pathogen, like a virus, to help the immune recognize it as a threat.
The problem is that these highly personalized vaccines take months to develop and are extremely expensive – around $100,000 per patient.
It’s hoped that AI will be able to detect cancer in its infancy, speed the production of vaccines up massively and bring down costs.
Despite the promises, some political commentators on the right criticized Project Stargate.
Evan Kilgore posted on X: ‘The ‘mRNA cancer vaccines’ discussed at Donald Trump’s first press conference tonight were a BIG turn off for a lot of Right-Wingers.
‘The Trump Administration must learn that his base largely DESPISES him for Operation Warp Speed and how heavily experimental vaccines were pushed.’
Trump has also nominated staunch vaccine critic Robert F Kennedy Junior to lead Health and Human Services, who has raised concerns about vaccine efficacy and linked childhood vaccines to autism.
The president called Stargate a ‘monumental undertaking is a resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential under a new president.’
Mr Ellison, speaking alongside OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, explained that ‘tumor fragments’ are ‘floating’ in a patient’s body and AI would be able to analyze someone’s blood for signs of cancer.
He continued: ‘Then beyond that, once we gene sequence that cancer tumor you can then vaccinate that person, design a vaccine for every individual person to vaccinate them against that cancer and you can make that mRNA vaccine robotically using AI in about 48 hours.’
Mr Ellison added: ‘So imagine early cancer detection, the development of a cancer vaccine for your particular cancer aimed at you, and have that vaccine available in about 48 hours.
‘This is the promise of AI and the promise of the future.’
But it still remains to be seen how a new vaccine would be received, given top health leaders in Trump’s administration have opposed vaccines and vaccine mandates, including the incoming head of the FDA Dr Marty Makary, who opposed Covid vaccine mandates.
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Despite any criticism or doubts, a new cancer treatment would likely be a welcome breakthrough in the medical community, as rates of the disease are on the rise globally.
Between 1990 and 2019, cases of cancer in young people across the globe have increased by 79 percent and deaths have risen 28 percent, and studies project diagnoses will continue to rise by 31 percent and deaths will rise by 21 percent in 2030.
Nearly every continent is experiencing an increase of various types of cancer in people under 50 years old, which is particularly problematic as the disease tends to be caught in later stages in this population because most doctors aren’t trained to look for it in young people.
mRNA vaccines were thrust into the public sphere during the Covid pandemic when Trump established Operation Warp Speed, a campaign to facilitate and accelerate the development and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines and treatments.
The above graph shows the change in cancer case rates around the world
Globally, Australia has seen the highest number of early-onset cancer diagnoses in the world, with a rate of 135 per 100,000 people.
The United States falls in sixth place, with 87 cases per 100,000 people under 50 years old and the UK takes the 28th spot, with 70.5 cases per 100,000 people.
Cancers increasing the fastest include throat and prostate cancers. Early-onset cancers with the highest mortality include breast, tracheal (windpipe), lung, stomach and colon.
Experts have longed speculated the increasing obesity rates and earlier cancer screenings may be behind the rise, as well as high-fat diets, alcohol consumption and tobacco use.
The above shows the projected rise of cancers in the US by 2050
However, because lifestyles, habits and diets vary so widely from country-to-country, they now believe these factors do not entirely account for the surge and more recent researchers have begun to focus on a genetic component to early-onset cancer.
Some have found younger people develop more aggressive tumors than older patients, which are better at suppressing a person’s immune system.
Trump’s announcement on Tuesday is one in a long line of healthcare changes the new president has implemented during just the first few days of his second term.
On Monday, the president signed an executive order proclaiming the US government will only recognize male and female as official sexes, which was met with blowback from LGBTQIA+ advocates.
Soon after his inauguration, Trump also withdrew from the World Health Organization – for the second time – sparking concerns from experts that the fight against global diseases like AIDS, malaria, polio and tuberculosis could take a serious hit.
Additionally, the president also signed an order reversing Biden administration efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs for people on Medicaid and Medicare. However, experts say the reversal will likely not have much effect on what most people pay for medications out of pocket.
