Cancer Vaccine Treatments Promising for Prostate and Brain Tumors

December 16th 2005

Cancer spread within 3 months

Research out of the UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center may provide for an effective treatment for a very fatal form of brain cancer. Clinical trials volunteers are wanted for this treatment.

Researchers believe that surgery combined with a vaccine may prove effective. After removing the tumor surgically, a combination of the patients own tumor cells and white blood cells are used to create a vaccine. Similar to other vaccines, this vaccine will prepare the body to fight off the cancer cells on their own.

A story recently appeared on NBC in Los Angeles concerning this research. Dr. Linda Liau of UCLA told NBC that “The problem with brain cancer is that even with very little tumor cells left, the tumor comes back. It comes back in a matter of months”. The type of cancer being investigated is almost 100 percent fatal.

There are various studies underway in the treatment of cancer with a vaccine. Teaching the immune system how to get rid of the cancer cells might keep tumors from coming back. "The whole concept is to alert your immune system that these cells are abnormal and that your body should get rid of them" Dr. Liau told NBC.

Does the future of cancer treatment lay with the vaccine approach? Recent phase VII clinical trials at Duke University Medical Center show promising results for prostate cancer. According to the Science Daily website Dr. Johannes Vieweg MD, the associate professor of urology and immunology said “ We have more research ahead of us, but the results of this study are promising.”

Some human cancers have an “overexpressed” antigen. In the case of some prostate cancers the telomerase antigen is over-expressed. Antigens are protein fragments produced by invaders such as viruses and bacteria. Usually antigens are attacked by the immune system, but in the case of cancer the immune system needs to be trained. This research was published in the March 15^th 2005 Journal of Immunology.