Cancer vaccine could start human trials in 3 yrs, could revolutionize treatment

[briann]

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/12/14/discovery-cancer-vaccine-brings-hope-to-doctors-patients/

The discovery of the smallpox vaccine in 1796 essentially wiped out a disease with high fatality rates, and really, revolutionized the face of medicine at the time.
Keeping that in mind, I’m incredibly excited about the new reports out of the University of Georgia regarding a potential vaccine for cancer.  Researchers said the vaccine could be ready in as little as three years after promising trial results.
The vaccine works by training the immune system to correctly identify cancer cells based on their sugar structures – and then destroy them.  The vaccine first attacks the coating that surrounds cancers, and then kills the cells themselves.
In lab testing on mice, the vaccine worked on 90 percent of breast cancer cases.  It was also particularly successful in killing pancreatic tumors.
Now, I know a lot of people think of vaccines as simply injecting the body with a disease in order to produce antibodies, but the real concept of a vaccine is using the body itself to kill diseases and infections.
This finding is huge and could open a lot of new doors in the biopharmaceutical field.  Essentially, it could be a whole new prong of cancer treatment, alongside old standbys like chemotherapy and radiation - utilizing our own cells to shrink, and even eliminate, tumors.
I’m hopeful the clinical trials on humans will begin soon – the researchers estimate a 2013 start date – and they will be similarly successful.
Of course, over these next few years, it will also be important to monitor other factors, such as potential side effects and long-term survival rates, but my hopes are high that this will someday be an applicable treatment for all those cancer patients out there who currently face painfully limited choices.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/12/14/discovery-cancer-vaccine-brings-hope-to-doctors-patients/#ixzz1gjCcaKgI

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

Another amazing accomplishment of black science!

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

How about an Islam vaccine?

[Rubystars]

I think a lot of cancers are linked to viruses so vaccines against them make sense. I'm still not sure what to think about Gardasil though. When Perry wanted to force all the school girls to have that vaccine it made me wary of it. I'm too old for that one anyway though.

[angryChineseKahanist]

That report is a bit lacking. I wish there were more detailed.

[briann]

Well this can actually be used after the cancer already exists.  Its only been tested in mice, again.. 2 years until human trials start.

Here is more info:

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/health/Vaccine-Attacks-Breast-Cancer-in-Mice-135729118.html


Scientists have developed a vaccine which reduces breast cancer tumors in mice. The researchers say it may work against a number of other cancers, too, if it works in humans.

Vaccines boost the body's immune system to fight off a foreign invader. That makes sense if the invader really is foreign - like influenza or malaria. But Mayo Clinic researcher Sandra Gendler notes that cancers are a home-grown threat - our bodies’ own cells run amok - not an alien virus.

"That's one of the major problems, is that we are tolerant to many of our cancers, and it is difficult to break that tolerance."

 

So Gendler and her colleagues are focusing on a vaccine based on a protein called MUC1 that occurs on the surface of various kinds of tumors.

"One of the advantages of a MUC1 vaccine is that virtually all solid tumors express it: breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, ovarian cancer, bladder cancer, multiple myeloma, some lymphomas. It has really wide applicability," she said.

Researchers at the University of Georgia, led by Geert-Jan Boons, developed a vaccine based on MUC1 that was tested on special mice that Gendler developed. Her mice produce human MUC1 on tumors, making it a more realistic test for the experimental vaccine.

In the lab, the mice were vaccinated, then injected with breast cancer cells.

"We then monitor for the tumor growth," Gendler said, "and we found that the animals had a large decrease in the tumor growth, about a 75-80 percent decrease in their tumor growth."

So, much smaller tumors compared with the control group of non-vaccinated mice.

If this turns out to be an effective vaccine in humans, Gendler says it might be used to help reduce the risk of cancer before it develops, for example, in women with a high risk of breast cancer. It might also be used alongside existing treatments after diagnosis, particularly for a fast-moving disease like pancreatic cancer.

Gendler, whose research is published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, says human tests might begin as soon as about two years from now.

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

I think a lot of cancers are linked to viruses so vaccines against them make sense. I'm still not sure what to think about Gardasil though. When Perry wanted to force all the school girls to have that vaccine it made me wary of it. I'm too old for that one anyway though.

I thought it could be taken at any age if the person does not have HPV.

[maelgwyn]

Some hope on the horizon anyway !

[Rubystars]

I thought it could be taken at any age if the person does not have HPV.

I still don't want it and probably don't need it. When the government tries to force something on the population that always makes me wary of it. I'm avoiding flu shots until they stop carrying the H1N1 strain in it too because Obama and others were suggesting it so heavily as a must-get.

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

Good point.

I'd like to suggest that an Islam vaccine be developed. Such a development would save billions of lives--both in terms of the victims of Islam and the Muslims themselves.

[briann]

Good point.

I'd like to suggest that an Islam vaccine be developed. Such a development would save billions of lives--both in terms of the victims of Islam and the Muslims themselves.

Would be difficult to develop.  Islam propagates quickly and most importantly, the Islamic virus is often ignored or even protected by the self-hating immune system.

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

There are already treatments based on this concept and indeed its one of the hottest new areas of research esp in cancer.  For example Dendreon's "Provenge" treatment for prostate cancer trains the body to attack the cancer.  Very amazing treatment.  Also seattle genetics treatment for several types of cancer called "adcetris" is an ADC or antibody drug conjugate.  The chemo is attached the an antibody and the antibody binds antigens on the cancer cell's surface, and only once it binds can it release the chemo molecule into the cell it has binded to, thereby destroying the cancer.  Truly a refined creation and great results so far in their drug launch, still acquiring data for additional indications to use it with (more types of cancer).  Many companies have this type of molecule (other designs of adcs) in earlier stages of development hoping to jump in and capitalize on the huge potential of this market.

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

There may be some confusion in this thread because the author is not clear enough, but he does not mean a vaccine in the traditional sense but merely uses that term to describe an immune system approach to treating cancer ( I think that is all that he means).  That means a person would only be getting something like this as a treatment to cancer they already have detected (God forbid).  Also there is one quote he needs to be corrected on, and I will do that with my next comment.

[muman613]

I sure hope they find an effective remedy for Cancer in my lifetime. I has statistical reasons to suspect I may have to deal with it since there have been several members of my family who died of cancer. Although I am a medical skeptic because I have been let down by several doctors who mistreated my condition.

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

I’m hopeful the clinical trials on humans will begin soon – the researchers estimate a 2013 start date – and they will be similarly successful.

He is hopeful they willl be similarly successful but anything can happen in phase 3.  Unfortunately most cancer drugs do not succeed in phase 3 trials.  It is very difficult to have success with cancer drugs.

Btw one more for you - Teva has a partnership with a tiny company company called cel-sci corporation that has invented "multikine" which is a treatment for head and neck cancer that involves the immune system as an initial stage of treatment with multikine before the standard of care then gets implemented.  They hope it will improve survival and they currently have enrolled patients in several countries and are enrolling more in many countries.  It if works it will be huge and teva will help them launch it and market it, but results are probably a long ways off.