Source: BBC Health; Journal Nature Medicine.
Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute (for those not “in the know”, the Cleveland Clinic is a highly regarded institution) are now conducting human trials of a breast cancer vaccine. The vaccine specifically targets a protein common to breast cancer tumors (a-lactalbumin).
Studies upon mice (Sorry PETA, that’s what they’re really good for) have demonstrated reason to be hopeful. There are currently two cancer vaccines approved for use in the US, however neither of these actually prevent cancer. One (Gardasil) prevents HPV while the other prevents Hepatitis B, both precursors to cancers. If the breast cancer vaccine is effective in human trials it would be the first vaccine against cancer tumors.
Some background is in order. Cancer actually describes a process of rapid and unrestrained cell growth. The inability of the human body to switch off the growth of cells results in formation of clusters of cells forming tumors or spreading (metastasizing) throughout the body. Where viruses are foreign to the immune system and defended against, cancerous cells are not.
The vaccine would target the proteins at the cellular level so that they can not continue to form tumors. Unlike traditional chemotherapy (chemical agents) or radiation, which destroys not only cancer tissue but a good deal of healthy tissue and organs with it, a targeted vaccine would actually prevent one from ever developing breast cancer (in theory) in much the same way that the polio vaccine prevented generations of children from contracting polio.
Definitely one to watch.
~Posted by D.M. Schwadron, Esquire