A new study published in the “New England Journal of Medicine” informs that a vaccine was developed which causes the body to recognize cancer cells quickly and to delay the progression of melanoma.
“It’s one of the first studies that has shown promising results”, said the study’s author, Dr. Patrick Hwu of the University of Texas. Treating cancer with vaccines is a new concept in medicine and very few have been approved by the American Food and Drug Agency.
In the case of the vaccine to treat melanoma (the most common skin cancer), the guarantee to success was a combination with another therapy (interlukin 2 or IL-2). As soon as the vaccine teaches the body to locate and attack cancer cells, IL-2 order the immune system to produce more antibodies to neutralize the disease.
“The vaccine teaches the body to recognize and attack cancer cells, and IL-2 protein causes proliferation of antibodies”, study’s author stresses.
Vaccine – conventional therapy combination, double efficiency
However, experts say that the vaccine is not a panacea: only in 16% of patients who participated in the clinical trial there was a reduction of 50% of tumors. However, the rate results for patients treated only with IL-2 is two times lower.
The study was conducted on a group of 185 melanoma patients in advanced stages (III or IV) of 21 U.S. medical centers.