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It's one way we're curing cancer. Other promising avenues include personalized cancer vaccines which essentially recruit your immune system to attack the tumor[

by ihodes 12y ago

It's one way we're curing cancer. Other promising avenues include personalized cancer vaccines which essentially recruit your immune system to attack the tumor[1], or other viral vectors such as the recent Mayo success[2] using the measles vaccine to counter cancer. [1]: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/15/us-health-cancer-measles-idUSKBN0DV1Y120140515 http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/15/us-health-cancer-m... [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_vaccine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_vaccine

christkv 12y ago
The good news is that this is happening faster than you would think. Having a father who is a leader in the field I can tell you the initial trials look very promising. However vaccines might not be the cure to end all cures. A very aggressive cancer might kill you before your immune system is able to re-engage to fight the cancer. So a combination of vaccines and more traditional treatments is likely to be the answer in this case. My understanding is that one of the main benefits of vaccines will be to make relapse much less likely as the stimulated immune system will eradicate any leftover cancer cells in the body.
- ihodes 12y ago
  Maybe not faster than I'd think :) I work in the field as well. Maybe even with your father!
  - christkv 12y ago
    You might have :). Here's the most relevant paper http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00262-013-1453-3 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00262-013-1453-3 But from what I understand the process is pretty universal so can be applied to more than one cancer type.
- yulaow 12y ago
  I'm a total "noob" in this field so I'm sorry if I can sound stupid: I thought that traditional methods to cure cancer (like chemio or radio therapy) have all the side effect of partially (or even totally) destroy the patient immune system. So how can we combine those with these special vaccines which surely need a strong immune system to be effective?
  - ihodes 12y ago
    Not at all a stupid question. I don't even have a great answer for you. My understanding is that, at least for some cases, you can target e.g. radiation enough to shrink the tumor enough for these therapeutic vaccines to be effective.
- clusterfoo 12y ago
  > The good news is that this is happening faster than you would think. The research might be moving fast, but access to these new treatments still moves at a glacial pace. At least for the people who need them... patients have to wait years until drug trials run their full course, even when preliminary results consistently show these treatments are effective. One can understand why these rules and regulations are in place, but surely there's a better way of assessing the risk/benefit of prematurely approving certain treatments for diseases that will almost certainly kill (or gravely, permanently debilitate) those who suffer from them long before the drug is approved. Speaking from personal experience dealing with this right now, it's extremely frustrating that these treatments are just out of reach because access to them is surrounded by so much red tape -- If you don't have $120k sitting in your wallet, that is.

by ihodes 12y ago

christkv 12y ago

The good news is that this is happening faster than you would think. Having a father who is a leader in the field I can tell you the initial trials look very promising. However vaccines might not be the cure to end all cures. A very aggressive cancer might kill you before your immune system is able to re-engage to fight the cancer. So a combination of vaccines and more traditional treatments is likely to be the answer in this case. My understanding is that one of the main benefits of vaccines will be to make relapse much less likely as the stimulated immune system will eradicate any leftover cancer cells in the body.

ihodes 12y ago
Maybe not faster than I'd think :) I work in the field as well. Maybe even with your father!
- christkv 12y ago
  You might have :). Here's the most relevant paper http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00262-013-1453-3 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00262-013-1453-3 But from what I understand the process is pretty universal so can be applied to more than one cancer type.
yulaow 12y ago
I'm a total "noob" in this field so I'm sorry if I can sound stupid: I thought that traditional methods to cure cancer (like chemio or radio therapy) have all the side effect of partially (or even totally) destroy the patient immune system. So how can we combine those with these special vaccines which surely need a strong immune system to be effective?
- ihodes 12y ago
  Not at all a stupid question. I don't even have a great answer for you. My understanding is that, at least for some cases, you can target e.g. radiation enough to shrink the tumor enough for these therapeutic vaccines to be effective.
clusterfoo 12y ago
> The good news is that this is happening faster than you would think. The research might be moving fast, but access to these new treatments still moves at a glacial pace. At least for the people who need them... patients have to wait years until drug trials run their full course, even when preliminary results consistently show these treatments are effective. One can understand why these rules and regulations are in place, but surely there's a better way of assessing the risk/benefit of prematurely approving certain treatments for diseases that will almost certainly kill (or gravely, permanently debilitate) those who suffer from them long before the drug is approved. Speaking from personal experience dealing with this right now, it's extremely frustrating that these treatments are just out of reach because access to them is surrounded by so much red tape -- If you don't have $120k sitting in your wallet, that is.