Right now it looks like there are some tests going on that involve a potential vaccine against cancer… specifically, in this example, the test was conducted against breast and ovarian cancer.
A small study was conducted last year on a vaccine that tricks or coaxes the human body into attacking tumor cells. It’s called the PANVAC vaccine and the tests they conducted showed some promise.
The test was given to a very small sample of 26 women with monthly shots. The shots helped the body recognize proteins that cancer cells produce. All of the test participants had either breast or ovarian cancer that had spread.
The awesome news is that of this small sampling, four breast cancer patients had the disease stop progressing and one woman’s cancer had what’s called a “complete response.” For those who don’t know exactly what that means, the woman’s cancer disappeared.
Want to know something else that’s exciting?
The average age of the participants was 57. These patients had exhausted immune systems from various other treatments. The docs think that if the vaccine were given to people with systems in better condition, they’d have even better results.
Is that not cool, or what???
The results of the study came out in the November 8th 2011 journal of Clinical Cancer Research.
Side effects from the vaccine were mild.
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more information on cancer vaccines.
[ yahoo:
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