Experimental Vaccine Halts Prostate Cancer

[RedEarth]

FRIDAY, Feb. 1 (HealthDay News) -- An experimental prostate cancer vaccine has stopped the progress of the disease in 90 percent of the mice who got it, California researchers report.

"The vaccine turned the cancer into a chronic, manageable disease," said W. Martin Kast, lead author of a report published in the Feb. 1 issue of Cancer Research.

Twenty mice, genetically bred to develop prostate cancer, were given the vaccine in a two-step process, said Kast, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

When the mice were 8 weeks old, they got one injection consisting of a fragment of DNA that coded for prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA), a protein that is overproduced as prostate cancers grow. That injection alerted the immune system, Kast said.

A second shot, given two weeks later, used a modified horse virus to deliver the gene for PSCA, throwing the immune system into full action against the tumor.

Only two of the 20 vaccinated mice developed full-blown prostate cancer at the end of one year. Twenty other similarly bred mice who did not get the vaccine died of their cancers.

A vaccine for prostate cancer already exists, but it is only designed to extend survival for men in advanced stages of the disease and it has not been approved for use in the United States.

The new vaccine is designed to be used much earlier, Kast said. "Our vaccine approach would be to give it before you actually develop the disease," he said. Candidates for vaccination would be men who have high levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein associated with the cancer.

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/612264.html?chan=top+news_top+news+index_lifestyle

[varkam]

1. It must be evil. It's a vaccine.

'Nuff said.

[DCKit]

2. I disagree.

Vaccines made of protein fragments are the most basic and (I believe) safest type. It's simply a matter of waking the immune system up to something it had been ignoring.

Not quite sure what they mean about a manageable disease though. I would think once the immune response is triggered, it's pretty much "hands-off."

[varkam]

4. I was being sarcastic. eom

[trotsky]

3. Lost my grandpa to prostate cancer.

This is great news though. Hopefully this will lead to more cancer vaccines.

[TZ]

5. THere are at least two promising ones in clinical trials right now

One that actually shrinks some brain tumors and the vaccine which not only might protect agaisnt stomach cancer but might mean an end to ulcers for many people..A vaccine to H.Pylori.

[xchrom]

6. and now there are two! -- two anti-cancer vaccines!!!

:applause:

[cosmik debris]

7. Now if we could only rid ourselves of

anti-vaccine cancers. :)

[xchrom]

8. lol -- word!

:thumbsup:

[Evoman]

9. Lol...great, so when my mouse gets prostate cancer, I'll give him the vaccine.

This is promising...actually, I've read a lot of studies that are promising. I just wonder how long it's going to be before we start seeing these vaccines and cures for cancer start popping up for human use.

I'd like to see a cure for colon cancer, seeing as how my family has a history and I'm tired of avoiding processed meat.