A NEW vaccine that may treat cancer and also protect against the development of specific types of the disease could be on the market in the next five years.
The research being carried out by Prof Albert Deisseroth and his team in the US is expected to have major implications, not just for cancer treatment, but in vaccinating against swine flu, influenza and many other infectious diseases.
Prof Deisseroth of the US Food and Drug Administration, and former president of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Centre, explained that the response to cancer vaccines for the most common malignancies was limited because of defects in the immune system acquired over time.
He has found a way to overcome these defects by giving a missing immune system protein at the time of vaccination.
He and his team have been able to do this by producing a vaccine that fuses the DNA of the missing protein with the target at which the vaccine is aimed, be it cancer cells or infectious viruses.
The new vaccine has overcome the defective response in older test subjects, prevented development of tumour formation and growth and stimulated an immune response against influenza.
Prof Deisseroth told The Irish Times: “The animal trials of the vaccine have been very successful and we have now started clinical trials.
“If we are successful in treating cancer by making tumours shrink in humans, the next step will be to administer the vaccine early in life to people who have a genetic predisposition to specific types of cancer and if this is successful, we can deliver it to the wider population.”
He explained that the preventive vaccine would increase the number of cancer-attacking cells in the body, even before a person was infected with the disease and that these cells, known as memory cells, would stay in the body for life.
“These cells will recognise the cancer cell markers and prevent them from expanding in the body. By inducing an immune response to what is unique about the cancer cells or to a virus, the whole process is made safer as normal tissue is not being attacked by the cells,” he said.
Prof Deisseroth will today present his findings to the conference of the International Society of Cell and Gene Therapy of Cancer, which is being hosted by the Cork Cancer Research Centre at UCC.
