A cancer vaccine that cured 97 percent of blood tumors in mice will be tested later this year in people with low-grade lymphoma.
Patients who receive the vaccine containing two drugs that have been tested for safety do not need chemo and the side effects of the vaccine are likely to be just fever and injection site pain.
If approved, the researchers do not expect the treatment to be available for another year or two.
Instead of producing permanent immunity, jab activates the immune system to attack tumors.
This is expected to be effective in low-grade lymphomas that affect certain white blood cells and are generally responsive to treatment because unlike other forms of the disease, such as colon cancer, they are often detected by the immune system. ,
About 1.7 million new people get cancer every year in the US.
The senior author, Dr. Ronald Levy of Stanford University said: ‘We have a huge problem in cancer and we will never be satisfied until we find solutions for everyone.’
The vaccine is being analyzed in two studies.
A total of 35 patients with lymphoma will participate in the studies.
Each participant will receive a low dose of radiation for six weeks along with two vaccinations.
Further details, such as the time between vaccinations, are not clear.
A similar targeting approach for the types of leukemia and lymphoma has already been approved.
This involves the removal of immune cells from the body of patients and their genetic engineering to attack the tumors before reintroduction.
This treatment, known as CAR-T, costs about half a million dollars per patient and can cause fever, confusion, organ failure and dysfunction of the immune system.
The cancer specialist Dr. Michelle Hermiston of the University of California at San Francisco said, “It’s not a trivial therapy.”
She adds that research needs to be done to determine if tumors can be manipulated to better respond to the immune system.
Dr. Hermiston said, “Can we make the tumor more visible to the immune system? We are now on the tip of the iceberg.
The researchers implanted two identical tumors at different sites in the body of the mice.
One of these tumors has been injected with the vaccine, which triggers the activation of T cells that elicit an immune response against invading substances, such as viruses, in the bodies of animals.
The degree of response was measured by the effect of jab on the untreated tumor.
The results indicate that the vaccine cures several cancers and prevents the disease from developing.
The results were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
This comes after the research, published in January of this year, has suggested that a cancer drug be developed that could stop the disease.
The anonymous medication is directed to a specific enzyme that promotes the spread of tumors.
This is done by connecting the membrane of cells that multiply rapidly, a study found.
This abducts the “survival mechanism” of cancer and prevents tumors from attaching to the protein they need to thrive.
It is not clear when the drug will be available.
The cancer drug binds to the membrane protein of cancer cells, known as dehydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH).
The researchers analyzed how fats, which are the building blocks of cell membranes, and drugs bind to DHODH.
Dr. Erik Marklund of Uppsala University said: “Our simulations show that the enzyme uses a few lipids as anchors in the membrane.
“When it binds to these lipids, a small portion of the enzyme is folded into an adapter that allows the enzyme to lift its natural substrate [the substance on which an enzyme acts] outside the membrane.
“It seems the drug uses the same mechanism because it joins in the same place.”
The author of the study, Sir David Lane of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, added: “The study helps to explain why some drugs bind differently than isolated proteins and proteins found in cells.
“By studying the structures and mechanisms that are typical of cancer targets, it may be possible to use their most distinctive features to develop new, more selective therapies.”