More news on the vaccine

[SimplyStar]

Experimental Vaccine May Fight Ovarian Cancer

The body's immune system provides constant surveillance for invaders. It detects and attacks tumor cells that may arise, but it restrains itself from attacking the cells of the body itself. When cells turn cancerous, their surfaces often display small changes that make the immune system suspicious that they are foreign. According to Dr. Kunle Odunsi, a clinical researcher and cancer surgeon at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, ovarian cancer cells sometimes display a new protein on their surface called NY-ESO-1. Researchers hypothesize that most of the time, the immune system pounces on cells that display NY-ESO-1 and kills them. If the immune system fails to notice the small change, the cells with NY-ESO-1 can grow into life-threatening ovarian tumors.

Some ovarian cancer cells might escape the immune system, because fewer than half the tumors display NY-ESO-1, and even in tumors that have it, the cells may not display it on their surfaces all the time, according to Dr. Odunsi. Another problem is that the immune system doesn't always recognize NY-ESO-1 as an important change, so it may not attack cells with the NY-ESO-1 protein on their surface.

Dr. Odunsi and his colleagues have made a therapeutic vaccine that trains the immune system to recognize and attack NY-ESO-1. The vaccine also puts the immune system on alert so it recognizes the small changes that signal that a cell may be cancerous. In order to make ovarian cancer cells as conspicuous as possible so the immune system will eliminate them, patients in the clinical trial will also receive a drug called decitabine. In preliminary studies by one of Dr. Odunsi's collaborators, decitabine encourages ovarian cancer to display NY-ESO-1.

[msjazz]

I just finished rd 5 of chemo. My WBC before chemo was 9.7. It has been down to 3.2. If it goes down I take neupogen shots 2 or 3, and it goes back up. If I wasn't on chemo It wouldn't go down. Since your wife did chemo and hers went down too, what are you saying? ???

[SimplyStar]

You are becoming a great big nuisance on this forum touting the gerson therapy,  it is not the answer for all,  so please refain from trying to make these ladies think it is. It is NOT APPROVED  in the USA,

[SimplyStar]

The Ovarian Cancer Research Fund has awarded a $900,000 research grant to Kunle Odunsi, MD, Department of Gynecologic Oncology, and his colleagues at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) to collaborate on developing a promising vaccine to unleash the power of the immune system against cancer.
The prestigious award will help Dr. Odunsi and the RPCI research team* combine four different approaches, all designed to enhance the immune system's response to ovarian cancer.

Ovarian cancers are usually fatal within five years, despite extensive surgery and chemotherapy used to treat them. Dr. Odunsi's team previously tested an experimental anti-tumor vaccine in 18 women who had surgery to remove their ovarian tumors and who were receiving chemotherapy. The vaccine did not cure the cancer, but it did get the immune system to make antibodies and specialized cells with the capacity to kill ovarian cancer targets. The vaccine also appeared to lengthen the time until tumors reappeared.

Dr. Odunsi, who is a gynecologic cancer surgeon as well as a cancer researcher, feels that "one of the most challenging malignancies in women is cancer of the ovaries, because about 70% of patients present initially with advanced-stage disease." Explaining that a vaccine might help, he said, "I look at all of us as cancer survivors. Cancer cells are constantly being formed, but the immune system keeps them in check."