The novel technology that allowed the development of the covid vaccines is now finding new applications. 

Messenger RNA (mRNA) works in concert with DNA in almost all living organisms. With its single strand it carries genetic information from double stranded DNA to the ribosomes where new proteins are synthesized with the information coded in the RNA. This mechanism has been co-opted to produce vaccines. In the case of COVID vaccines, a small amount of the spike in protein from the corona virus in templated on the RNA which then instructs the ribosomes to produce this protein. Since it is a foreign protein, the immune system recognized it foreign nature and automatically makes antibodies to destroy it. Thus, providing vaccine protection.  

Now research is using this template to create a vaccine for metastatic pancreatic cancer. Researchers at Sloan Kettering use individual patient cancer cell and use the mutant cancer protein to generate mRNA sequences for these “red flags” which alerts the immune system to destroy them. Similar technologies are being used in metastatic melanoma and colon cancer.