Search for Cancer Vaccine Showing Promise

Search for vaccines against cancer was already there .As reported the enthusiasm has gained new boost.The direction of research is to make the tumor look more foreign to the immune system of body.Now it is not effectively distinguished and that is why the immune system could not act on it.Once that is done the body defense mechanism will act on them to eliminate.Now there is reports that vaccine against HPV and Hepatitis B is showing promise in preventing cervical cancer and liver cancer respectively.Let us hope for the best.

clipped from www.oncologystat.com Search for a Cancer Vaccine Beginning to Show Promise As Reported by TIME. 2009 Sept 14 The search for an effective cancer vaccine has been elusive until now, but positive results for separate vaccines against melanoma and lymphoma were finally reported this past June. Although the theory behind a cancer vaccine seems logical—enlist the immune system to seek and destroy cancer cells—it also poses an inherent problem, specifically, that cancer cells aren’t foreign pathogens, such as bacteria or viruses, but cells from a person’s own body. Getting a vaccine to work against cancer requires a deep understanding of how the immune system works and how malignant cells evade detection. A feature article in the September 14 issue of TIME, written by Alice Park, explains the quest thus far for cancer vaccines.