from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Our topics usually deal with health information that is currently available to you. However, occasionally we think you would want to know about research into new treatments. Such is a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers at the University of Georgia and Mayo Clinic in Arizona have developed a vaccine that they say dramatically reduces tumors in laboratory animals. These tumors mimic ninety percent of human breast and pancreatic cancer cases, including those that are resistant to common treatments. Co-author Sandra Gendler, of Mayo, says this is the first time that a vaccine has been developed that trains the body’s immune system to distinguish and kill cancer cells based on sugars on the surface proteins of the cells. Clinical trials may be at least a year away.