Russia has administered a cancer vaccine to a patient with melanoma for the first time. 

"The National Medical Research Center of Radiology of the Russian Ministry of Health has used the personalized anti-tumor mRNA vaccine "Neooncovac" for the first time in clinical practice in a patient with skin melanoma," says in a statement from the Ministry of Health press service.

The first patient was a 60-year-old resident of the Kursk region diagnosed with skin melanoma. 

The drug was tailored to each patient. It works by "training" the immune system to recognize and destroy specific cells that pose a threat. He explained Director General of the National Medical Research Center of Radiology of the Ministry of Health, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrey Kaprin.

Personalized cancer vaccines in Russia develop Over the past five years, such projects have been underway at the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, the N.N. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology, and the Yu.M. Lopukhin Federal Scientific and Clinical Center of Physicochemical Medicine. In November 2025, the Ministry of Health issued permits for the clinical use of two anticancer drugs: in addition to the vaccine from the N.M. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Radiology, the vaccine from the Yu.M. Lopukhin Federal Scientific and Clinical Center of Physicochemical Medicine of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency was also approved. 

In February 2026, the Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin He promised to include treatment with these drugs in the compulsory health insurance program, but did not provide a specific timeframe. He did not specify the planned cost or which forms of cancer he was referring to.

How to сообщил Forbs, oncologist, chief physician of the Ledin Clinic Evgeny LedinThe vaccines Mishustin spoke about are not yet registered and are not available for mass use.
"It seems as if this is a well-tested and proven treatment method that is about to enter, or has already entered, routine practice. But in reality, the vaccine trials the government is talking about have only just begun, and they have involved a very small number of patients," рассказал Ledin noted that doctors do not yet know “even the most preliminary results” of the use of vaccines.