Cancer Awareness
CANCER AWARENESS : CANCER IS CURABLE
Saturday, April 16, 2011
A Vaccine for Cancer Treatment..
Few News Reports....
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Tumour vaccine will be ready by 2013-end ANI, Apr 15, 2011, 11.55am IST Tags: Cancer A ''universal'' vaccine, which is part of a new generation of drugs that use the body's own defenses to fight the disease, stopping tumours in their tracks, could be available in just two years. The TeloVac jab could revolutionise the treatment of cancer. But it is hoped it will be effective against many other tumours, including those of the skin, lung and liver. Breast and prostate cancers may also be within its grasp.
Courtesy - Times of India
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Cancer patients begin vaccine trial (UKPA) – 1 day ago More than 1,000 patients with advanced cancer of the pancreas have begun a major trial of a vaccine which could lengthen the lives of sufferers. The final stage of the TeloVac trial, taking place in 53 UK hospitals, is testing an injection which "primes" the body's immune system to recognise and kill cancer cells. Medics hope the therapy will make chemotherapy more effective. Around 7,600 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in Britain each year. It is particularly difficult to treat, and only 3% of those diagnosed live more than five years. Smaller studies have found people given the vaccine, called GV1001, as well as chemotherapy live three months longer than those given chemotherapy alone. Even then, they lived an average of just 8.6 months. John Neoptolemos, director of the Liverpool Cancer Research UK Centre and a leader of the research, told The Times: "This will be a pivotal trial. If it's successful, it would make a real difference to the way clinicians behave and patients are treated." GV1001, made by South Korean pharmaceutical company KAEL GemVax, contains a fragment of an enzyme called telomerase, which is normally found in human embryos and which cancer cells use to divide unchecked. The vaccine teaches T-cells, a part of the immune system, to recognise cells that express telomerase - which in adults are all cancer cells - and attack them. The results of the 1,110-person trial will be announced next autumn, and, if successful, a vaccine could be approved in late 2013 or 2014. Scientists hope the method could work on other types of tumour and a trial for lung cancer is planned for later this year. Cancer Research UK, which funded the research, stressed the vaccine was not a cure for cancer, but could prolong the lives of sufferers.

Courtesy - UKPA
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TeloVac pancreatic cancer vaccine trial launched in UK By Fergus Walsh Medical correspondent, BBC News How does the pancreatic cancer vaccine work? A trial has begun on a vaccine treating pancreatic cancer, which has the lowest survival rate of all common cancers. More than 1,000 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer have joined the TeloVac trial at 53 UK hospitals. Vaccines are usually associated with preventing infections, but this is part of a new approach to try to stimulate the immune system to fight cancer. The trial involves regular doses of vaccine together with chemotherapy and compares this with chemotherapy alone. The vaccine contains small sections of a protein, telomerase, which is over-produced by cancer cells. The aim is to stimulate the immune system to recognise the telomerase which sits on the surface of the cancer cells and to target the tumour. “Start Quote For someone who's never smoked and hardly ever drank, it was a big shock”End Quote Rhona Longworth Patient Professor John Neoptolemos from Royal Liverpool University Hospital, who is helping to co-ordinate the trial, said: "The problem is tumours are clever and are able to turn the immune cells into traitors which help to guard the tumour. "The vaccine takes away the masking effect of the tumour." Pancreatic cancer has the worst survival rate of all common cancers. Just three in 100 patients survive the disease for five years or more. Rhona Longworth, 43, who was diagnosed with the cancer in February, said: "For someone who's never smoked and hardly ever drank, it was a big shock. "I just hope the vaccine works and I'm one person who goes on to live a happy, healthy life after this." Joan Roberts, 69, said the vaccine appeared to have few side effects and she is keeping her fingers crossed about the impact on her cancer. "I'm pleased that it's stable and it hasn't got any bigger. You've got to remain positive," she said. “Start Quote There is rarely positive news about pancreatic cancer. It has the worst survival rate of all common cancers - worse even than lung cancer”End Quote The TeloVac trial is being funded by Cancer Research UK. The charity is supporting trials against a range of cancers, using vaccines or antibody treatments to stimulate the immune system. Cancer Research UK's chief clinician Professor Peter Johnson said: "One of big problems with cancer treatment is you are almost always left with a few malignant cells and it is from those few cells that the cancer can regrow. "If you can programme the immune system to recognise those cells and get rid of them altogether or keep them in check then you can effectively stop the cancer from growing back lifelong." The South Korean manufacturer of the vaccine, KAEL-GemVax, is planning a lung cancer trial later this year using the same technology. Last year the first therapeutic cancer vaccine was licensed in the US as a treatment against prostate cancer. The Phase III or final stage TeloVac trial should produce results in just over a year which will show whether the vaccine has a positive effect. Cancer Research UK is keen to stress that the vaccine is not a cure, but if it works, might prolong life.

Courtesy - BBC
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Pancreatic Cancer Vaccine Trial Could Bring Hope April 15, 2011 11:21 AM By Nina Sen Pancreatic cancer Vaccine trials have begun at 53 hospitals in the U.K. According to BBC News, more than 1,000 patients with an advanced stage of the cancer are part of the TeloVac trial. Researchers say the vaccine will stimulate the immune system to fight the disease. "This will be a pivotal trial,” lead researcher John Neoptolemos told The Times. "If it's successful, it would make a real difference to the way clinicians behave and patients are treated." Smaller studies have found people given the vaccine, as well as chemotherapy, live three months longer than those given chemotherapy alone. Called GV1001, the vaccine contains enzymes of telomerase. Telomerase is normally found in embryos and cancer cells. They encourage other cells to grow and in cancer, can multiply unchecked. The vaccine hopes to reach the body’s natural immune-fighting T-cells and prompt them to recognize cells that are malignant. “The problem is tumors are clever and are able to turn the immune cells into traitors, which help guard the tumor,” said Professor John Neotolemos of the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, one of the hospitals coordinating the trial. “The vaccine takes away the masking effect of the tumor.” According to the National Cancer Institute, 36,800 people died of pancreatic cancer annually and more than 43,000 new cases of the disease were diagnosed in 2010. If successful, the vaccine could be available as early as 2013.

Courtesy - www.thirdage.com

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posted by Bhavya @ 10:36 PM  
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