New research indicates Cancer might have an answer soon

Harvard, January 16: “Cancer” –the word itself creates terror in our minds as it is till now an incurable disease. But the terror might be uplifted in near future as a new research paper indicates a different direction. Newly developed personalized vaccines have prevented early relapse in 12 patients with skin cancer. Physicians and scientists led by Catherine Wu at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston presented result of their new cancer therapy.

While earlier cancer vaccines targeted a singular cancer protein found ubiquitously among patients, these personalized vaccines contain neoantigens, which are mutated proteins specific to an individual patient’s tumor.

“Effective anti-tumor immunity in humans has been associated with the presence of T cells directed at cancer neoantigens. The scientists hypothesized that vaccination with neoantigens can both expand pre-existing neoantigen-specific T-cell populations and induce a broader repertoire of new T-cell specificities in cancer patients, tipping the intra-tumoural balance in favour of enhanced tumour control,” the paper by Catherine Wu says.

This is the first successful attempt towards cancer vaccine producing conclusive evidence in halting cancer growth. Personalized vaccines targeted about 20 neoantigens per patient. The vaccines were injected under the patients’ skin for a period of five months and indicated no side effects and a strong T cell response.