Cancer vaccine may add a year to patient's life

Scientists announce the development of vaccine that may prolong the lives of people with breast or ovarian cancer by as much as 15 months.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - While the vaccine did not stop the disease entirely, it managed to significantly prolong the lives of the women who received it. In most cases, the women had already used other forms of treatment, including chemotherapy, to the point of exhaustion.

The vaccine is known as the PANVAC vaccine and in the trial, it was administered to women on a monthly basis. It was found to help the body's immune system to identify proteins which are being produced by cancer cells. Once the body was able to identify the cells, it was better able to destroy them.

In one case, a woman being treated with the experimental vaccine experienced a complete remission, she had no signs of cancer after the course of treatment.

The study was published in the current edition of the journal, Clinical Cancer Research.

Most participants had an average age of 57, and had used a wide variety of other forms of treatment. It's believed that these heavy treatments may have actually dampened the effect of the vaccine in the trial.

Doctor Elizabeth Poynor, an oncologist who was not involved in the study commented that, "any time we have one type of biologic treatment that demonstrates some success, it's exciting. No matter how small the study is, and early studies will be small, when we have positive results on a particular technique, it's a very hopeful thing. These are our most difficult patients to treat; they have failed multiple therapies."

The test vaccine was only administered to 26 women, among those women 12 had breast cancer, and the vaccine managed to stall the progression of the disease by as much as 10 weeks. The average rate of survival was 13.7 months. For patients with ovarian cancer, the outlook was slightly better with their median overall survival being 15 months.

The vaccine was reported to have very mild side effects, mostly related to the injections themselves.

It is hoped that this exciting new treatment will pass further tests and be declared safe for use. It may add a year or more to the lives of many women who have no other option, and for some fortunate women to receive the vaccine early, it may even spare them altogether.

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