Immune therapies finally working against cancer

[Akoto]

Source: Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- First there was surgery, then chemotherapy and radiation. Now, doctors have overcome 30 years of false starts and found success with a fourth way to fight cancer: using the body's natural defender, the immune system.

The approach is called a cancer vaccine, although it treats the disease rather than prevents it.

At a cancer conference Sunday, researchers said one such vaccine kept a common form of lymphoma from worsening for more than a year. That's huge in this field, where progress is glacial and success with a new treatment is often measured in weeks or even days.

Experimental vaccines against three other cancers - prostate, the deadly skin disease melanoma and an often fatal childhood tumor called neuroblastoma - also gave positive results in late-stage testing in recent weeks, after decades of struggles in the lab.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MED_CANCER_VACCINES?SITE=NVLAS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[aquart]

1. Wonderful.

[tabatha]

2. Great - this is the way to do it.

After that, educate people to keep their immune systems healthy.

[No Elephants]

3. How many decades has cancer research been going on? How many billions have been spent on it? How

many people are employed in the field? Seems like a lot of incentive never to find a cure. However, I certainly hope something wonderful comes of this.

[pinto]

4. Though I don't have cancer, I surely owe my life, in part, to people who

work in medical research, the billions spent on it and the results of it all. The folks working in the fields of medical research and treatment that directly effect me *are* working for a cure, a vaccine and more effective treatments. I have AIDS and I'd like to thank them.

I too hope this line of research pays off for people with cancer. :thumbsup:

There's a ripple effect, especially in immune response based therapies, that benefits a lot of people outside the specifically targeted disease. So we all benefit.

[clixtox]

6. Truly!!!

The current reality for those dealing with AIDS has improved so amazingly and dramatically the last few years. Today a person having AIDS is able to live pretty much like everyone else and expect to be alive for decades to come, if they are taking the state-of-the-art medications and living smart.

Multi kudos to those doing the research to make these mini-miracles occur through new drugs and therapies.

All of us are healthier every day because of these folks.

I too thank them sincerely for my good health and that of my many friends, men and women, children and adults, now living with AIDS, rather than dying from AIDS.

We live in amazing times...

[emilyg]

15. +1

[No Elephants]

27. I am glad you were helped and hope that you get stronger and stronger.

[chimpyisstillsatan]

14. Enough with the abstraction and innuendo.

If you mean it, just come on out and say it directly. But do you have the guts to say it to someone on the "home team?" That would be me, lifelong progressive and scientist working on cancer vaccines.

Bring it on. Tell me I'm a fraud, that I wake up every day and deny people relief from their disease. Tell me the past 24 years of my life are a sham, that I'm just a mountebank, a day trader in suffering. Then tell me exactly how you make the world a better place up there on your f*cking high horse of ignorance.

[xchrom]

16. your input would be interesting in the health forum.

please come and see us in there.

[chimpyisstillsatan]

21. will do, thanks.

I can't promise lots of participation, but I'll check in.

[Posteritatis]

22. Those types generally lack the courage to keep that BS up when confronted

I just assume all the "Them(tm) are sitting on cures for everything and creating new diseases like the big monolithic evil things They are!" people are idiots; they're rarely worth trying to argue with, since they'll just flee when confronted as you did, or simply ignore any evidence that they're wrong.

I also generally assume they know less about the field than people like you probably knew in ninth grade. ;)

As someone who freely admits he's clueless about the research process in these sorts of fields, what are some of the big obstacles making progress so slow?

[chimpyisstillsatan]

23. Darwinian obstacles

Put simplistically, there is an evolutionary battle being fought every day between your immune system and out-of-control cells (cancer, infected cells). Victory (continued health) requires a 100% success rate in fighting off the baddies. Usually this works, especially in the case of "non-self" immune responses like those against viruses and bacteria. Most of our lives we don't have cancer b/c we have evolved one helluva defense system.

An established tumor is another proposition. The cancer has already won that battle once, so your body (and your doctor) must kill about 10-100 billion cells to completely clear a tumor. One surviving cell can grow into a new, resistant clone and become a relapsed tumor. This new beast has by definition won a round in the evolutionary struggle, making it even less likely that the body can overcome the ensuing onslaught.

The current thinking is that a well-timed series of different treatments will be necessary to keep a tumor off guard and on the run. This may come in the form of surgery, radiation, chemo, and immunoregulators like the vaccine in the OP. Success will most likely require many of these modalities given over a long treatment course.

I am wholeheartedly pulling for the current study to pan out, but my inner biologist is readying himself for another disappointment. Sorry to be a downer, but it's a tough, tough problem.

[Posteritatis]

24. And I am now fractionally less clueless; thanks!

Are they actually that durable, that one single cell can start the whole thing over again? I always thought that was an exaggeration, but if it isn't, gah.

[chimpyisstillsatan]

31. gah, indeed

tumors start generally clonally, meaning they start from a single cell.

[No Elephants]

28. I don't lack courage. I just don't always respond to people who are over the top rude to me. I

never attacked the poster personally. There was no reason to attack me personally. S/he could have stated a position on the issue, but chose to attack me personally instead. Why should I respond to a post that consists solely of flaming me personally without reasonable provocation, unless I'm really in the mood for nothing more productive than a personal flame war? Do you always respond to that kind of post?

In fact, there are many posts to which I do not respond, for whatever reason, including not seeing the response, which actually happens to have been the case yesterday with this thread. In fact, most days, I don't even check My DU for replies. So, often my "failure' to respond simply means I have not seen a post. Although, now that I have seen that post this morning, I choose not to respond, for reasons I stated above.

"These types?" Gee, you seem to have learned a lot about me from the fact that I missed seeing one response. Hope you don't often jump to conclusions with such little basis. It's okay on message boards, I guess, but could be to your detriment IRL.

BTW, exactly what "bs" did I allegedly lack the courage to keep up? Was there anything in my relatively brief prior post that you actually disagreed with, or were you only reacting to the other poster's interpretation of my post?

People can say a lot of negative things about me, and some of them would be accurate. I'd like to think I'd admit it if they were accurate. Cowardice is not one of my failings, though, not IRL, let alone on an anonymous message board, ffs.

Peace.

[undeterred]

5. My dog was cured of cancer using a biological therapy in 2000...

at the University of Wisconsin Veterinary Teaching Hospital. They worked with the UW Hospital on parallel studies in dogs and humans. He had injections of IL-2 into his tumor, with no chemo or radiation, and it worked. Its the right principle for healing.

IL-2 is used in renal cell carcinoma and in the treatment of AIDS.

[madmax]

8. Maybe I should go there

I was treated like a dog at Duke. Decided to find new doctors and am receiving better care.

I'm a maniac dog lover myself. :hug: you saved the boy. :bounce:

[undeterred]

11. The day they gave me the diagnosis

there were five veterinary oncologists in the room offering different treatments. Radiation was the gold standard, but expensive. The one I chose was actually a study, so a lot of it was paid for by the sponsoring company.

I remember thinking "5 oncologists... it doesn't get this good if you're a human with cancer".

Harry dog died of old age last year at 15. He was an 8 year cancer survivor.

[XemaSab]

13. Wow...

:pals:

[madmax]

18. I hope I can get 8 years.

I went from thinking I pulled a muscle to 3 weeks later told I had 3 years to live. Needless to say, Dr. Death is no longer my Dr.

[undeterred]

20. I hope you have a lot longer than that.

:hug:

[ladywnch]

12. Pittsburgh Presby hospital and Kellog Cancer Center in Chicago

have GREAT people and great treatment if you need anymore resources. I couldn't believe how well I was treated by them all. Good Luck! :-)

[madmax]

19. Thanks for the info

:hug:

[No Elephants]

29. Great story. Thanks for posting it. (I melt with heartwarming posts!)

[madmax]

7. Check this out

Google this Dr. and her diet. I'm working on it. It's not easy but, I think the alternative is worse. I've had chemo and radiation and am now 6 months in remission. I don't know what these dr.'s are doing but I doubt they're telling patients that they'd have to make radical changes in what they eat.

http://www.cancure.org/budwig_diet.htm

[MasonJar]

9. Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[The River]

10. I Used A Biological Cancer Treatment

over the past 2 years called BCG.
"Bacillus Calmette-Guerin has been in use since the 1980's,
and is the most proven and effective form of immunotherapy
at this point in time."

It's worked very well.


Unfortunately I have a new cancer (B lymphoma)
The good news it's confined and highly survivable.
It should be removed next week or two and then some radiation.

[Mnemosyne]

25. Good luck with the radiation, hope all goes well and you find your health.

Sounds encouraging anyway. :hi:

[xchrom]

17. as a cancer survivor -- all i can say is

:woohoo:

[No Elephants]

30. Glad for your survival and your elation. Hoping you get stronger and stronger.

[Vidar]

26. Recommended for good news.