Cancer vaccine shows promise in Rats.

Sonny · Nov 5, 2002

Very promising news, I hope that it carries over to humans. I know this method of cancer treatment has been around for a while, but with little success so far until now.

Also, I wonder how many of you think that we will cure cancer within the next 25 years? I voted for the second option, I think some cancer will be cured and that treatment will advance to the point that people can "live" with cancer and extend their lifes, similar to today's AIDS treatments.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993010

Cancer vaccine shuts off blood supply

11:50 05 November 02

NewScientist.com news service

The latest cancer vaccine has an unexpected target - it triggers an immune system attack on growing blood vessels rather than tumours. This cuts off the blood supply cancers need to grow.

Cancer cells have evaded previous vaccines by constantly mutating, but the new vaccine avoids this by targeting the healthy blood vessel cells associated with the tumours. And the same vaccine could be given to everyone, instead of having to be tailored to target specific cancers.

Trials of drugs that block the growth of tumour blood vessels have not been very successful, and the drug has to be taken continuously. But one dose of the vaccine might provide long-term protection, the latest experiments suggest.

To design the vaccine, Ralph Reisfeld, at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and his colleagues added the gene for a protein called FLK-1, which is found on cells in new blood vessels, to Salmonella bacteria. The bacteria were then fed to mice.

When the animals were injected with skin and lung cancer cells, the resulting tumours grew to only a quarter of the size of those in unvaccinated mice. "We saw tumours vanish or we could not detect them anymore, and we saw tumours that took longer to grow," says Niethammer.

Half a lifetime

The researchers also vaccinated mice with colon cancer that had already spread to the lungs. All treated mice survived, despite some lung damage, but the untreated mice all died.

Tumours often escape the effect of anti-cancer drugs if they are sheltered by a mass of scar tissue or the blood-brain barrier. But Reisfeld says that the immune system's killer T cells can reach growing blood vessels no matter where the tumour is.

The vaccine also gives long-term protection. It was just as effective in mice that were injected with cancer cells 10 months after immunisation. "The beautiful thing about T cells is that they have a memory," says Reisfeld. "And 10 months in a mouse is almost half its lifetime."

The only side effect the researchers detected was that wounds took longer to heal. But cancer vaccine expert Jeffrey Schlom of the National Cancer Institute near Washington DC warns that careful safety studies will be needed before the vaccine is given to people.

Journal reference: Nature Medicine (DOI:10.1038/nm794)

Anil Ananthaswamy
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Sonny · Nov 6, 2002

http://health.discovery.com/news/afp/20021104/cancervaccine.html

Test Vaccine May Protect Against Cancer
AFP

Nov. 5 — Researchers have tested a cancer vaccine on laboratory mice that works by choking off the blood supply that helps tumours to grow, according to the November issue of the journal Nature Medicine.

Among mice that were vaccinated and then injected with skin and lung cancer cells, the tumours grew to just a quarter of the size of tumours among unvaccinated rodents, a team led by Ralph Reisfeld of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, reports in the journal.

They also vaccinated mice which already had colon and lung cancer and found they all survived, whereas all unvaccinated mice died, they report.

Better still, the vaccine also appears to give lasting protection.
The vaccinated mice remained protected 10 months after being treated, which is roughly equal to half of their lifetime.

The prototype vaccine works by triggering an attack by the body's killer T immune cells on a protein called FLK-1, which is found in the cells of new blood vessels.

Once they get more than a couple of millimetres across, tumours need a continuously expanding network of blood vessels, bringing in oxygen and nutrients, to help sustain their growth.

To get the immune response, the Reisfeld team took a gene that controls FLK-1 and added it to a non-infectious salmonella bacteria, which was then fed to the mice.

The only detectable side effect was that among vaccinated animals, wounds took a bit longer to heal, which is logical given that the healing process also requires new blood vessels to grow.

Conventional approaches on cancer vaccines aim to prime the immune system against tumour cells themselves.

The problem, though, is that the cells are specific to the type of cancer — which thus requires multiple sorts of vaccine — and they can mutate, thus becoming resistant to the treatment.

By targeting the blood supply to tumours itself, protection could be given against a broad range of cancers.
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Free Agent · Nov 6, 2002

I just don't understand why we are spending all of this money to save the lives of RATS.

jk, hopefully this will be the step in the right direction.

Chance · Nov 6, 2002

Poor rats.

AntiSonic · Nov 6, 2002

We'll cure everyrthing eventually, unfortunately new diseases will always pop up to take their place.

SMITHERS: Oh, Mr. Burns, we'll thaw you out the second they discover the cure for seventeen stab wounds in the back. How're we doing, boys?

FRINK: Well, we're up to fifteen!

SCIENTISTS: Yay!

arkoe · Nov 6, 2002

I read today that rats perform better in a repeated maze when they eat blueberries. I can't remember if that was in the Battalion here on campus or in the Chronicle though.

A-Train · Nov 6, 2002

Ben, the cancer's spread, now it just grew
Let me inject these drugs into you
With this really big syringe
You will feel a slight twinge
And after we are through
Then we will dissect you

Ben, PETA's been all over our case
Why can't they protest some fast food place
After this we'll have to wait
To try it on inmates
Hey Ben, where are you at
Damn, I need one more rat

Forums

Cancer vaccine shows promise in Rats.

Will cancer be cured within the next 25 years?

Yes - All Cancer will be cured.

Some Cancer will be cured, treatment will advance to extend life.

There will never be a cure to cancer, it is to difficult to stop completely.

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