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Cancer Vaccination in Action Monday, July 21, 2008 - Asaf Peer Home >> News >> Cancer Research   
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A research team from the Hadassah Medical Organization and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem has developed a method for generating a personalized melanoma vaccination. The vaccination is targeted at patients in the early stages of tumor development and for patients who have had their tumors removed. The scientists found that the vaccination impressively reduces the production rate of metastases and raises the life expectancy of melanoma patients. The vaccination is now being practiced in Israel, and the Israeli Cancer Association hopes that combined with early detection this innovative treatment will help save lives in the near future.
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The Israeli team, headed by Dr. Michal Lotem and Professor Tamar Peretz, has created tumor specific vaccination to fight the spread of melanoma. A sample of the tumor was taken and used to produce tumor specific antigens. The antigens were then introduced to the patient's immune system and helped it recognize tumor cells and fight them. In this method, following vaccination, the immune system will attack any tumor cell found in the body, but will not succeed in removing large tumors. The experiments show that as long as the immune system "remembers" the signal it has received in the form of the antigen it fights to destroy the tumor metastatic cells with a high rate of success. Fifty percent of the patients that had a good response to the vaccine showed no symptoms of melanoma within the next five years. By using the vaccine and by early detection of melanoma the Israel Cancer Association hopes to prevent melanoma among the general population. The vaccine is planed be used against colorectal cancer as well in the near future. TFOT previously wrote about a number of other methods that use the body's immune system to fight cancer. An article that explains how it works can be found here. One example is the new interferon created by a team at the Weizmann Institute. More TFOT news on the relationship between cancer and the immune system can be found here and here. |
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Patient's Name:AHMET TAPU Patient's Age :48 Patient's Gender: Male Mr. Ahmet Tapu had undergone rıght sided cervical and bilaterally axillary lymph node dissection in 27 July 2006. Pathology specimen revealed metastatic malign melanoma in lymph nodes. Primary lesion was probably a spontaneously vanished nevus located on the skin of anterior thorax. The patient received 3 years of interferon alfa 2 A as adjuvant immunotherapy. In 17 November 2008 some urinary symptoms occurred and prostatic piopsy revealed malign melanoma metastases to prostatic tirsue. PET/CT detected metastates in the lungsi liver and soft tissues. After six course of temozolimide a complete response obrained, confirmed by PET/CT. In June 2009 prostatic metastates begin to progress so we decieded to radiate it with cyber-knife to ameloriate urinary symptoms. Although wide- spread disease he is in a good physical condition. (PS: ECOG 0-1) Is this patient a good candidate for melanom a vaccine trials |
