- Vaccine, which contains two safe drugs, may cause just fever and site soreness
- If approved, researchers expect it will be one-to-two years before it is available
- Rather than creating lasting immunity, the vaccine activates the immune system
- This then attack tumours in certain forms of the disease, such as lymphoma
- Approximately 1.7 million new people develop cancer every year in the US
A cancer vaccine that cured 97 percent of blood tumours in mice will be tested on humans with low-grade lymphoma later this year.
Patients receiving the vaccine, which contains two drugs proven for their safety, will not require any chemotherapy, with the jab’s side effects expected to be just fever and injection-site soreness.
If approved, researchers do not expect the treatment to be available for another year or two.
Rather than creating lasting immunity, the jab works by activating the immune system to attack tumours.
This is expected to be effective in low-grade lymphoma, which affects certain white blood cells and generally responds to treatment, due to it often being detected by the immune system, unlike other forms of the disease, such as bowel cancer.
Around 1.7 million new people develop cancer every year in the US.
Lead author Dr Ronald Levy, from Stanford University, said: ‘We have a huge problem in cancer and we will never be satisfied until we find solutions for everyone.’
WHAT ARE TUMOURS?
Tumours can be benign or cancerous (malignant).
Benign tumours usually grow quite slowly, do not spread and have a covering made up of normal cells.
Such growths only cause problems if:
They become become very large
Are painful or uncomfortable
Are unpleasant to look at
Press on the body’s organs
Take up space within the skull
Release hormones that affect how the body works
Malignant tumours typically:
Are made up of cancer cells
Grow faster
Spread to surrounding tissue
Enter other parts of the body via the bloodstream or lymph nodes.
