A historic medical development is unfolding in Moscow, as Jovana Aleksić from Serbia has been selected to become the first patient worldwide to receive the innovative Russian cancer vaccine.
Aleksić is suffering from advanced stage melanoma with metastases, an extremely aggressive form of skin cancer.
According to Sergey Boljević, head of the Department of Pathology at Sechenov University in Moscow, the vaccine is not a general pharmaceutical treatment but a fully personalized therapy.
The process begins with the extraction of genetic material from the patient’s own tumor cancer cells.
Subsequently, through advanced artificial intelligence algorithms, the data are analyzed to create a drug that “trains” the immune system to recognize and destroy only those specific cancer cells.
The treatment protocol and guarantees
The therapeutic procedure is strictly defined and includes:
1) A total of 10 vaccine doses per patient.
2) One dose every two weeks.
The first results regarding tumor regression and treatment effectiveness become visible after the second or third dose.
Sergey Boljević emphasized a critical detail: if a patient is fully cured of melanoma through this method, they acquire permanent immunity and cannot develop this specific form of cancer again in the future.
In addition, he clarified that this procedure is no longer a clinical trial but an officially approved therapeutic practice.
Financial details and international cooperation
The start of treatment for Jovana Aleksić is expected within the next month, or at the latest within two months.
While patients from Russia and Republika Srpska are already covered by their insurance funds, for Serbia and other countries negotiations are still ongoing.
At present, there are no official agreements for cost coverage, but optimism is expressed that the success of the first case will pave the way for interstate cooperation.
More scientific details and technical data on the vaccine’s performance are expected to be officially presented at a major scientific conference to be held in early April in Sochi.
Where and when it was developed
The vaccine was developed in Russia through the collaboration of leading scientific institutions, with key participants including Sechenov University in Moscow, the National Medical Research Center of Radiology, and the Federal Medical Biological Agency (FMBA).
The research lasted several years, with intensive preclinical trials conducted during the period 2022-2024.
In June 2025, the first clinical trials in humans began, involving 48 volunteers, which demonstrated the safety of the formulation and high effectiveness in tumor reduction.
It is the first Russian vaccine based on mRNA technology, similar to that used in COVID-19 vaccines, which allows the body to be “trained” to recognize proteins of cancer cells.
Which other types of cancer it covers
Although Jovana Aleksić is starting treatment for melanoma, the vaccine Enteromix has been designed to address several forms of aggressive tumors.
Scientists are focusing primarily on:
1) Colorectal Cancer: Considered the first type of cancer for which the vaccine received approval for broad use, as it showed outstanding results in trials.
2) Glioblastoma: One of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer, for which the treatment is at a very advanced stage.
3) Ocular melanoma: A specific and rare form of melanoma affecting the eyes.
4) Breast cancer: Sechenov University completed preclinical trials for forms of breast cancer resistant to conventional therapies. The strategy of Russian scientists is the creation of a “universal” vaccine, which will nevertheless be individually adapted to the genetic code of each patient’s tumor, increasing survival probabilities by up to 80% in cases that were previously considered irreversible.
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