Novel lung cancer vaccine shows promise in fighting early-stage lung cancer

[trotsky]

CHICAGO - An experimental vaccine that triggers the patient's immune system to identify and attack specific tumor cells is showing new promise for the treatment of early lung cancer. Thoracic surgeons at Rush University Medical Center are researching the vaccine called MAGE-A3 Antigen-Specific Cancer Immunotherapeutic, which is designed to kill cancer cells without harming normal cells. Rush is one of only five hospitals in Illinois offering the vaccine.

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"The principle is that you can possibly teach a patient's immune system to eliminate cancer cells that express certain proteins such as the MAGE-A3 protein," said Dr. Anthony Kim, thoracic surgeon and principal investigator of the study at Rush. "In a trial of early-stage lung cancer patients whose tumors expressed MAGE-A3, preliminary results showed that the vaccination reduced the risk of recurrence and the need for repeat surgery."

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Using vaccines to fight cancer might be one of the most promising and effective treatments yet.

[HamdenRice]

1. This therapy has been in the making a very long time

Way back when I had one of my first jobs in finance around 1983, I worked on a venture capital investment in a technology that was supposed to create something like artificial cells that had anti-bodies embedded in their cell walls that would target cancer cells. They were called mono-clonal antibodies.

The cells would contain chemo therapy drugs. The idea was that the antibodies would cause the chemo drugs to narrowly target cancer cells, rather than other organs and tissue.

It's good to see that although the monoclonal antibody therapy never worked for cancer, a more generalized use of the immune system looks ever more promising.

[Barack_America]

3. You might be interested in Rituxan, then.

It's really quite remarkable (and keeping my father alive, I might add).

http://www.rituxan.com/

[xchrom]

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