Taking It To The Next Level

Human trials will soon begin for a cancer vaccine developed by Stanford researchers

- Priya Menon

Cancer vaccines are back in the headlines with research teams from Stanford University School of Medicine publishing breakthrough results of immunotherapy studies. Cancer research seems to be experiencing a tidal wave of immunotherapy treatment options; the excitement around the US Food and Drug Administration approval of the first CAR T-cell therapy and then a second one within months, is still afresh. The Stanford teams are taking this to a new level by pressing all the right buttons for a cancer vaccine.

This February, an interesting study led by researchers at the university has shown experimental vaccines as possible treatments for cancers in mice, and the university is starting human trials soon.

Stimulating immune system against solid tumours

The study injected minute amounts of two immune-stimulating agents directly into solid tumours in mice and found that this could eliminate all traces of cancer in the animals, including distant, untreated metastases.

“When we use these two agents together, we see the elimination of tumours all over the body,” said Ronald Levy, MD, professor of oncology and senior author of the study, in the Stanford press release.

The cancer environment displays a strange kind of relationship with the immune system. Immune cells like T-cells recognise the abnormal proteins present on the surface of cancer cells and infiltrate the cells to attack the tumour. However, as the tumour grows, it devises ways to suppress this activity of the T-cells.