Baylor College of Medicine resident co-authors groundbreaking cancer paper in Nature
In October 2025, a team led by researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Florida, Gainesville published in Nature their groundbreaking discovery that patients with advanced non-small lung cancer or melanoma lived twice as long if they had received a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine within a hundred days of immunotherapy.
This finding raises hope for a future with significant improvement in outcomes for many cancer patients and has raised great expectations for the results of a phase III clinical trial currently in preparation to evaluate the use of mRNA vaccines to improve cancer outcomes.
When From the Labs found out that Dr. Rishabh Lohray, a first-year dermatology resident at Baylor, was one of the authors of the Nature paper, the idea emerged of learning about his experiences as a member of the research team, as well as about him.
Making time during his busy clinical training schedule, Lohray proposed to meet during his lunch break to answer a few questions.
FTL: How did you become involved in this research?
RL: I became involved thanks to my cousin, Sage Copling, a third-year medical student and co-first author of the paper. Sage had joined the study when he was a first-year medical student at McGovern Medical School in Houston, working with co-first author Dr. Adam Grippin at MD Anderson Cancer Center. When Sage told me about the study and what they intended to do, I was instantly hooked by the premise and offered to help in any way that I could.
FTL: What was this research about?
RL: The premise was that in mice the combination of non-specific mRNA vaccines with common anticancer drugs called immune checkpoint inhibitors triggered a strong antitumor response. This finding led Adam to investigate whether the readily available COVID-19 mRNA vaccine would work like a nonspecific mRNA vaccine, enhancing the antitumor response in people with cancer and helping eliminate the tumor.
As a fourth-year medical student, I was excited when I was accepted as a team member with the opportunity to make my small contribution to the study.
I’m very thankful to both Sage and Adam for giving me this opportunity, and for Adam’s brilliant conception of the idea that maybe mRNA vaccines have these benefits.
FTL: How did the team answer the question?
RL: To answer the question, we studied two types of cancers, melanoma and non-small lung cell cancer. We analyzed the outcomes of patients with advanced-stage disease for one or the other cancer, comparing patients who had received the COVID mRNA vaccine within 100 days of immunotherapy with those who had not received the vaccine.
FTL: What was your specific contribution to this work?
RL: I worked together with a group of medical students under the direction of Adam and Sage to collect the clinical data for both melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer patients at MD Anderson who received immunotherapy.
FTL: What were your main challenges?
RL: The sheer volume of patients was the primary challenge for us because we had to review more than 1,000 patient charts, sifting through the data to determine whether there was an association between having received the COVID mRNA vaccine and patient outcome. Thankfully, the hard work of everyone involved allowed us to complete these analyses in a timely manner.
FTL: What were your main findings?
RL: We first observed that retrospective cohorts of patients with advanced lung cancer or melanoma who were treated with immunotherapy and received their COVID mRNA vaccines within 100 days of starting therapy lived nearly twice as long as patients who did not receive the vaccine.
Then the team wanted to explore this further in preclinical studies conducted in mouse models. The team found that mRNA vaccines act like an alarm that puts the immune system on high alert to recognize cancer cells and attack them. In response to the attacks by immune T cells, cancer cells raised a defense – they increased on their surface the levels of a protein called PDL1 to evade that attack. When immune cells see PDL1 on cancer cells, they do not attack them. And here is where immune checkpoint inhibitors come into play – they block PDL1, which eliminates its tumor-protective effect and allows for the prolonged activation of the tumor-targeting immune T cells which have now been produced thanks to the vaccine.
FTL: What are you most excited about the results of the work?
RL: The survival benefit in cancer patients was the most exciting finding and having this supported by data the scientists obtained in the lab working with animal models has encouraged the team to dig deeper into the study.
Another interesting finding was that replacing the COVID mRNA vaccine with mRNA of other proteins also had the same results. On the other hand, receiving non-mRNA vaccines, such as those for pneumonia or influenza, did not have the same effect on survival, which led us to believe that it is perhaps the mRNA itself that is causing this immune response modulation that was observed in the study. This has opened the path to a phase three clinical trial where the team wishes to further explore whether giving COVID-19 vaccines as part of treatment for non-small cell lung cancer can boost response and improve survival.
We know that there are already some mRNA vaccines for cancer in the works in the research community. But COVID vaccines may be a much cheaper and accessible alternative. And that’s what makes it very exciting because they’re already approved and available.
FTL: This is very exciting. We are looking forward to seeing the results of the upcoming clinical trial! Now, we would like to know a bit more about you. What brought you to Baylor to study medicine and later to complete your residency?
RL: When I interviewed for medical school, it was the culture of kindness, respect and collaboration that impressed me about Baylor. I saw these values reflected in the faculty and the students and that is why I picked Baylor, and I am so thankful they chose me.
I felt the same way during the residency interviews. I had the opportunity to be mentored by some of the kindest and most phenomenal people here in the Department of Dermatology, like our chair, Dr. Ida Orengo. She is one of these pivotal mentors for me and her brilliant vision for the department attracted me to Baylor dermatology eventually for my residency as well. I’m so thankful to have matched here for residency and for medical school.
FTL: What are your plans after your residency?
RL: I plan to pursue academic dermatology and dermatopathology after residency. I am interested in becoming a faculty member at Baylor. My current research interests are in cutaneous oncology, including melanomas, rare non-melanoma skin cancers and cutaneous lymphomas. My goal is to further explore those fields.
FTL: What do you like to do in your free time?
RL: I love reading, specifically fantasy novels and fiction. I also play badminton occasionally. I used to go every weekend to play badminton at the Baylor gym.
FTL: What would you say to medical students interested in research?
RL: This research experience was great for me, and I wish that everybody has the opportunity to engage in research during their medical training. I think spending time on a lab project will help inculcate that passion for research early in their profession.
Being a part of the Texas Medical Center provides access to cutting-edge research experiences at Baylor, MD Anderson, Texas Children’s, Methodist and other institutions where we can all form cross-institutional partnerships and help each other out. I think medical students should keep taking advantage of these unparalleled opportunities. One excellent way to learn about research opportunities at Baylor in which I participated is through the Student Opportunities for Advancement in Research (SOAR) program.
As excited as Lohray is about being part of the Baylor community, he is also lauded for his contributions to the College.
“Dr. Lohray embodies all the qualities of an exceptional physician. He possesses a profound intellectual curiosity about how diseases happen and the implications of the knowledge he acquires. He also is an excellent writer, effectively sharing his insights with others,” said Dr. Ida Orengo, professor and chair of dermatology at Baylor. “As a team player, he values and respects the talents of his colleagues. He is a delightful individual whose infectious joy makes him a pleasure to work with as a colleague, student and, most importantly, as a friend. Rishabh’s dedication to his profession and his genuine care for those around him truly distinguish him as an exemplary figure in the field of medicine. We are very proud to have recruited him as a resident in our department.”
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