Diprovocim: A promising new cancer vaccine can avoid and stop the return of aggressive cancer cells.
By adding a molecule called Diprovocim to a vaccine, researchers report they are able to fight cancer-causing cells in mousea. It works in combination with other treatments to treat cancer and can stop some aggressive and often fatal forms of cancer, such as melanoma.
"This co-treatment has produced a comprehensive response (treatment proposal) to the treatment of melanoma," said Dr. Dale Boger of Scripps Research.
The vaccine also stimulates immunity system to defend itself should the cells return, according to Nobel laureate Bruce Beutler, from University of Texas Southern.
"As a vaccine can train the body to fight against external pathogens, this vaccine trains the immune system to put it with a tumor," says Professor Boger.
So far the research has been tested against a particularly aggressive form of melanoma. Three groups of eight experimental animals received the vaccine. From eight mice who received the vaccine with Diprovocim along with an adjuvant called alum, the vaccine was 100% successful for over 54 days. Mice that received the alum-adjuvanted vaccine had a 25 percent survival rate while those that received the vaccine alone had a zero survival rate.
When the researchers tried to re-insert the tumor into mice, they "didn't get it", says Professor Boger. "The animal was already vaccinated."
It is still in very early stages, but the next steps, according to Boger and Beutler, are to do further pre-clinical tests with the vaccine and study its effectiveness when combined with other cancer therapies.
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