A stunning new study offers early evidence that COVID-19 vaccines might have a secret superpower: a precisely timed mRNA shot could help many cancer patients live longer.

The work still requires validation, but the strength of the signal in the study — which analyzed differences in outcomes between cancer patients who did and did not receive mRNA vaccinations during the pandemic — should be sufficient motivation to direct resources toward quickly obtaining a definitive answer. COVID vaccines are inexpensive, widely distributed and easily accessible at most local pharmacies, such as CVS. If the findings hold true, they could offer a simple and cost-effective way to improve patients’ lives.

Yet the current administration’s dismissive stance toward mRNA science, particularly COVID vaccines, could impede that effort. This new research should push the nation’s health leaders to reconsider the enormous potential of this Nobel Prize-winning technology.

The study, published last month in Nature, originated from a curious observation made by Adam Grippin, a radiation oncologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, while working on his PhD thesis at the University of Florida. He was helping to develop personalized mRNA vaccines for people with brain cancer, designed to train the immune system to recognize specific markers on a patient’s tumor and launch an attack. But when testing the bespoke shots in animals, Grippin noticed that even the placebo shots — which contained mRNA entirely unrelated to the cancer — also activated the immune system to kill tumors.

“Since then, I have spent pretty much every day thinking about the results,” Grippin told me. The implication was that there could be an easily accessible, off-the-shelf shot capable of stimulating the immune system to fight cancer.

Grippin and his colleagues analyzed medical records from more than 1,000 patients with advanced lung and skin cancers who had undergone treatment with a type of immunotherapy called checkpoint inhibitors. People who received an mRNA-based COVID vaccine — it didn’t matter whether it was Pfizer or Moderna’s — up to 100 days before starting immunotherapy were twice as likely to be alive as those who either didn’t receive the vaccine or got it outside that time window.

The researchers also looked at whether the flu and pneumonia shots produced a similar effect (they didn’t) and whether patients who received a COVID vaccine in tandem with other cancer treatments benefited (they did not).

To understand what makes the mRNA shots special, the researchers examined blood and tissue samples and found that the COVID shots appeared to activate the innate immune system — a fundamental, early-warning defense mechanism that alerts other parts of the immune system to prepare for an attack.

That something as simple as a COVID vaccine might improve survival in cancer patients receiving standard immunotherapy has taken oncologists by surprise — in a good way. “My initial reaction was surprise and maybe disbelief,” says Ryan Sullivan, director of the Melanoma Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. Scientists are natural skeptics, and his first instinct was to look for flaws. Yet after carefully reviewing the paper, he concluded that the researchers had done extensive work to explain their findings and account for potential confounding factors. “The data are really good,” Sullivan says. He added that the sheer number of patients included in the retrospective study made the results especially compelling.

Of course, all of this needs to be confirmed in a randomized, placebo-controlled study, and the MD Anderson doctors are already planning one. Ideally, clinical trials will be paired with basic research to help scientists answer the many questions this discovery has raised.

For example, the benefit only appeared when people received their COVID shot within a specific window before starting immunotherapy. Determining the optimal timing to maximize that benefit would be crucial if this were to become part of standard treatment guidelines. After all, a doctor might be speaking with a patient who has newly diagnosed advanced cancer and feels an urgency to start treatment — should they wait a few days after vaccination, or would a few months be better?

Cancer immunotherapy is used to treat many common cancers, including breast, colon and bladder, and doctors want to know if the COVID shot might also help extend survival for those patients. Physicians at MD Anderson have conducted comprehensive reviews of every patient receiving immunotherapy at their facilities since 2018 and have a paper under review that is expected to provide an early answer soon.

Researchers also want to know whether the effect, if validated, can be improved upon. The mRNA in COVID vaccines carries instructions for making the coronavirus’ spike protein, but what if a vaccine instead delivered instructions for a protein that could more precisely stimulate that innate immune response?

All of these questions deserve urgent exploration. Unfortunately, the discovery comes at a particularly difficult moment for mRNA vaccines. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a notorious source of vaccine misinformation during the pandemic, is now in a position of authority over the nation’s research agenda and health policy. He has been steadily undermining support for COVID vaccines by unilaterally narrowing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations and terminating funding for nearly two dozen mRNA vaccine-related grants.

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Philanthropy and Big Pharma will likely step in to help fund clinical trials. But the consensus among academics is that obtaining government funding for mRNA research will be extremely difficult — if not impossible  — for many projects.

The potential to help cancer patients is profound. The simplicity of the idea — that someone about to start immunotherapy could simply pop into their local pharmacy for an inexpensive shot that might prolong their life — should be enough to inspire everyone to put aside politics and invest in pursuing this promising finding.

Lisa Jarvis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering biotech, health care and the pharmaceutical industry. Previously, she was executive editor of Chemical & Engineering News.

While having lunch together earlier this year, Beth Gausman and Harlene Hagen began talking about a past project of Twin City Home and Community.

“About halfway through our meal,” Gausman recalls, “Harlene says to me, very casually, ‘You know, we did a cookbook … actually, we did two cookbooks, and we earned thousands of dollars for scholarships.’”

Gausman had no idea — and neither did many other newer members of TCHC, whose backgrounds include experience in the fields of study similar or related to family and consumer sciences (formerly known as home economics).

“I said to her, ‘We need to do a program on this,’” Gausman said.

Their conversation came just in time to honor a significant number: On Wednesday, dozens of TCHC members and their guests filled a large room at Roseville Lutheran Church to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that first cookbook, “Cooking in Minnesota,” which was first published in October 1975, followed in 1983 by “More Cooking in Minnesota.”

The cookbooks, as precise and organized as a home ec teacher’s pantry, are filled with family-favorite recipes ranging from Wild-Rice Barley Casserole to Finnish Pulla Coffee Bread. The cookbooks, about 80,000 copies, sold through the 2000s in Minnesota and beyond and, along with other philanthropic efforts by the organization, raised $822,404 in scholarships and grants (minus operating expenses).

Today, the cookbooks are out of print, but a few copies are available here and there online, and they are preserved in the archives and collections of the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Historical Society.

‘Fresh Apple Cake’ and vintage memories

Marcia Copeland, right, talks about her recipe for Danish Aebleskiver with Elaine Christiansen during a celebration of the 50th anniversary of”Cooking in Minnesota,” which Copeland helped edit and Christiansen served as chairperson. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

On Wednesday, a long table of refreshments was set just as it was at an original cookbook launch party, down to the baskets of apples and the Fresh Apple Cake (from “Cooking in Minnesota,” page 118), along with other creations (including Chocolate Mint Brownies, Pumpkin Bars and Blueberry Lemon Muffins).

The organization was able to re-create such moments and delve into the history of its two cookbooks with the help of the University of Minnesota, which in its archives holds a collection of records of Twin City Home and Community, which originally operated under the umbrella of what was then called the American Association of Home Economists.

During the program Wednesday, copies of some of those archival materials were displayed on the tables. They provided a glimpse into that era.

“You’ll find a sense of the communication and determination to involve all 250 to 300 members and their families who joined in wholeheartedly on our wild ride into publishing and philanthropy in the early ’70s,” said 95-year-old Elaine Christiansen of Falcon Heights, who served as the cookbooks’ chairperson and is best known today as the longest-serving volunteer at the Hamline Church Dining Hall at the Minnesota State Fair.

The program in Roseville became a kind of oral history as Christiansen shared the story behind the cookbooks along with one of its editors, Marcia Copeland of Plymouth (co-editor Betsy Norum, an icon in Family and Consumer Sciences, passed away in 1994).

Copeland wore red in honor of her background as the director of the Betty Crocker Kitchens at General Mills. But back when she was asked to help cook up this cookbook, she was at home with her young son.

“Have you ever taken on a project that you knew was too big for you?” Copeland said. “Well, I did, and it was called, ‘Cooking in Minnesota.’ And I’m glad that I did. Had I known how much work was involved, I might have thought twice!”

The process involved blind testing of the recipes by members, tasting by their families and an editing process that strove for recipe uniformity and accuracy.

It wasn’t just about the recipes, though; Copeland said the cookbooks illustrated a shifting in the American palate.

“I want to give you the background on why we did a cookbook,” she told the group. “World War II was over: 1945 was a time when the soldiers came home. They had eaten regular pasta in Italy, they had eaten wiener schnitzel, they had eaten Aebleskiver, they had eaten all kinds of things that we hadn’t, or if we had, the ingredients weren’t available.”

After the war, she said, that began changing.

“I’ll never forget reading Julia Child for the first time or Jacques Pépin, the ones that became very important to us and helped set the table, literally, for better cookbooks, better recipes,” Copeland said. “We didn’t have to eat a can of spaghetti and serve it for dinner. We knew what good food was and we wanted to share that with the world, which is what we did.”

‘The lift to my spirit’

“Cooking in Minnesota” and “More Cooking in Minnesota” sold about 80,000 copies from the 1970s into the 2000s, with money raised for scholarships and grants. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Geri Skogen was one of the organization’s scholarship recipients, receiving $1,200 in 1983. On Wednesday, she spoke to the group about the gift’s impact.

“While the dollars were very significant to my master’s degree progress, it was the lift to my spirit that I remember so well,” Skogen said.

At the time, Skogen had resigned from her Extension position in Carlton County to attend graduate school at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities and was missing her colleagues and church friends in Cloquet, Minn.

“Your scholarship was an affirming wink and a nod, a pat on the back and ‘You go, girl!’ statement that I have never forgotten,” she said.

Skogen went on to earn a master’s degree and worked as assistant to the department head in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota for nearly 25 years.

“I was ‘home’ in who I was and the responsibilities and challenges before me,” she said. “Thank you TCHC for helping get me ‘home.’”

Cooking today

A member of the Twin City Home and Community samples Pumpkin Bars as featured in the groups celebrated cookbook, “Cooking in Minnesota” at Roseville Lutheran Church on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

In October 1975, columnist Eleanor Ostman wrote about the cookbook’s debut for the St. Paul paper, a report that included a photograph by Bob Walsh of Christiansen with her four sons.

The caption read: “Earned treat for the four Christiansen teenagers is a sample of Saucy Apple Swirl Cake which their mom, Elaine (Mrs. Martin) Christiansen, Falcon Heights, submitted to ‘Cooking in Minnesota,’ which she produced with members of the Twin Cities Home Economists in Homemaking (as it was known then). She suggested the project three years ago when she was president and the membership made her chairman. All recipes were tested by the home economists including the chairman who once had her sons … taste test four lasagna recipes in one day. Mrs. Christiansen is one of the managers for the annual Pillsbury Bake-Off and is also in charge of 5 cooks and 30 workers serving a thousand people per meal at the State Fair Grounds 4-H building.”

So many years later, Christiansen listened as members shared their thoughts and memories of the cookbooks.

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The carrot cake recipe was used in her sister’s restaurant, one woman said, and it was a hit.

A teacher said a Braille version of the cookbook was dog-eared from use at a school for the blind.

Hagen, who sparked the idea for this anniversary program, said she still uses the books for reference for pan sizes and other basics when she is unsure of the accuracy of online recipe instructions.

And another member, whose 10-year-old son was a witness to the intense process involved in creating a cookbook, recalled that he asked if the third cookbook would be called: “(I Am Sick of) Cooking in Minnesota.”

But what is cooking in Minnesota like today?

For Christiansen, her most recent meal was a bit simpler and involved a modern-day staple that would be perfect in an updated version of the cookbook, especially for these chilly November days.

“I like to buy a rotisserie chicken — I can get six or eight meals out of it from salad to sandwiches to a casserole to broth,” she said. “I just cooked up the bones to make a nice, warm bowl of vegetable soup.”

Fresh Apple Cake

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup buttermilk or soured milk*
2 teaspoons soda
2 eggs, beaten
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups chopped apples (2 or 3 medium)

* Milk can be soured by combining 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice and enough milk to measure 1 cup.

Topping:

Combine 1/2 cup chopped nuts, 1/4 cup brown sugar (packed), 1/4 cup granulated sugar and a dash of cinnamon.

Directions:

Heat oven to 350.

Grease and flour a 13x9x2-inch pan.

Cream shortening and sugars.

Dissolve soda in milk; stir into shortening mixture. Add eggs, flour, spices and salt; beat until thoroughly mixed.

Fold in apples; pour into pan. Sprinkle with topping.

Bake 30 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

— Recipe by Evelyn Hagen from “Cooking in Minnesota.”

Today is Saturday, Nov. 8, the 312th day of 2025. There are 53 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Nov. 8, 2000, a statewide recount began in Florida, which emerged as critical in deciding the winner of the 2000 presidential election between Republican George W. Bush and Democratic Vice President Al Gore. The recount would officially end on Dec. 12 upon orders from the U.S. Supreme Court, delivering Florida’s electoral votes and the presidency to Bush.

Also on this date:

In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln won reelection as he defeated Democratic challenger George B. McClellan.

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In 1889, Montana was admitted to the Union as the 41st state.

In 1923, Adolf Hitler launched his first attempt at seizing power in Germany with a failed coup in Munich that came to be known as the “Beer-Hall Putsch.”

In 1942, the Allies launched Operation Torch in World War II as U.S. and British forces landed in French North Africa.

In 1950, during the Korean War, the first air-to-air combat between jet warplanes took place as U.S. Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown shot down a North Korean MiG-15.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy won the U.S. presidential election over Vice President Richard M. Nixon.

In 1974, a federal judge in Cleveland, citing insufficient evidence, dismissed charges against eight Ohio National Guardsmen accused of violating the civil rights of students killed or wounded in the 1970 Kent State shootings.

In 2012, Jared Lee Loughner was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the January 2011 shootings in Tucson, Arizona, that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded, slammed into the central Philippines, leaving more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattening villages and displacing more than 5 million.

In 2016, Republican Donald Trump was elected America’s 45th president, defeating Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton in an astonishing victory for a celebrity businessman and political novice.

In 2018, tens of thousands of people fled a fast-moving wildfire in Northern California that would become the state’s deadliest ever, killing 86 people and nearly destroying the community of Paradise.

Today’s Birthdays:

Racing Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero Jr. is 83.
Singer Bonnie Raitt is 76.
TV personality Mary Hart is 75.
Actor Alfre Woodard is 73.
inger-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones is 71.
Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro is 71.
Filmmaker Richard Curtis is 69.
Chef and TV personality Gordon Ramsay is 59.
Actor Courtney Thorne-Smith is 58.
Actor Parker Posey is 57.
Actor Gretchen Mol is 53.
News anchor David Muir is 52.
Actor Matthew Rhys is 51.
Actor Tara Reid is 50.
TV personality Jack Osbourne is 40.
Actor Jessica Lowndes is 37.
Baseball player Giancarlo Stanton is 36.
R&B singer SZA is 36.

The Minnesota men’s hockey team snapped its four-game losing streak with a 3-0 win against Notre Dame on Friday at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

Beckett Hendrickson opened the scoring for the Gophers in the second period. Minnesota held on and got two empty-net goals late from Brody Lamb and John Whipple.

Luca Di Pasquo made 19 saves in goal for Minnesota.

The second game of the series is 7 p.m. Saturday.

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