Transforming the way cancer vaccines are designed and made

A new way to significantly increase the potency of almost any vaccine has been developed by researchers from the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN) at Northwestern University. The scientists used chemistry and ...

Researchers develop a safer carrier for cancer vaccines

Lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-based messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines have recently emerged as a promising strategy for the prevention and treatment of cancers, as well as infectious diseases. LNPs are carriers that safely ...

An mRNA vaccine for cancer immunotherapy

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines to prevent COVID-19 have made headlines around the world recently, but scientists have also been working on mRNA vaccines to treat or prevent other diseases, including some forms of cancer. Now, ...

Scientists develop novel nano-vaccine for melanoma

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a novel nano-vaccine for melanoma, the most aggressive type of skin cancer. Their innovative approach has so far proven effective in preventing the development of melanoma ...

page 1 from 2

Cancer vaccine

The term cancer vaccine refers to a vaccine that either prevents infections with cancer-causing viruses, treats existing cancer or prevents the development of cancer in certain high risk individuals.

Some cancers, such as cervical cancer and some liver cancers, are caused by viruses, and traditional vaccines against those viruses, such as HPV vaccine and Hepatitis B vaccine, will prevent those cancers.

Scientists have also been trying to develop vaccines against existing cancers. Some researchers believe that cancer cells routinely arise and are destroyed by the healthy immune system; cancer forms when the immune system fails to destroy them. One approach to cancer vaccination is to separate proteins from cancer cells and immunize cancer patients against those proteins, in the hope of stimulating an immune reaction that would kill the cancer cells. Therapeutic cancer vaccines are being developed for the treatment of breast, lung, colon, skin, kidney, prostate, and other cancers..

On April 14 2009 Dendreon Corporation announced that their Phase III clinical trial of Provenge, a cancer vaccine designed to treat prostate cancer, had succeeded in demonstrating an increase in survival. This is the first robust, statistically significant Phase III result for a cancer vaccine, although the data have yet to be scrutinized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or by European Union regulatory agencies. Dendreon is forecasting marketing approval by the FDA by 2010

If Provenge is approved by the FDA, Dendreon will have opened a new era in cancer care.[citation needed]

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA