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Posted on 04/07/2003 9:48:38 PM PDT by FairOpinion
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An early try at making a universal cancer vaccine seems to be safe, and shows some indication that it may even work, researchers at Geron Corp. said on Monday.
The first few cancer patients immunized with the vaccine showed no bad reactions and in fact seemed to mount an immune response against their own cancers, the Menlo Park, California-based company said.
The results are very preliminary but suggest the research approach is valid, Geron said in a statement.
Geron shares rose slightly on the news, to $6.70 a share in mid-morning trading.
Geron was scheduled to present its findings at a meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research in Toronto, but the meeting was canceled because of fears about an outbreak of pneumonia known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
Many groups are working on cancer vaccines. The body's immune system sometimes does recognize and destroy cancer cells, but not always.
The idea behind a vaccine is to boost this response. But a big question is what part of a cancer cell can be best used to stimulate the immune system -- especially as doctors do not want to accidentally cause the destruction of healthy cells.
Geron's approach targets telomerase, a protein that gives cells a kind of immortality. It is important early in life, but seems to be turned off once the body matures.
Cancer cells, however, over-produce telomerase, giving themselves extra-long lives and allowing themselves to proliferate wildly.
Geron's vaccine uses immune cells known as dendritic cells. They are taken from the patient, spliced with genetic signals from telomerase, and then returned to the patient. The hope is that other immune cells will become primed to destroy anything with extra telomerase.
The first few patients vaccinated this way showed no serious adverse effects, Geron said. It is a Phase I trial meant to show safety, and is only partly finished, the company said.
"Because telomerase is present in all major types of cancer cells, telomerase holds great promise for use in a universal cancer vaccine for the treatment of a broad range of tumor types, either alone or in combination with other antigens, " Dr. Thomas Okarma, Geron's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
...I pray for the day when it might happen....I was a kid in the 50s when there were polio outbreaks...it was terrifying....Dr Jonas Saulk invented the vaccine that stopped it and gave away the rights to it....it was too important a breakthru to be greedy about.....if a cancer vaccine comes to pass there will be enormous pressure to make it cheaply available...can you imagine what would happen if somebody like Merck were to try and sell it for say $10,000 a dose?
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Pretty cynical reply.
Ever think these researchers have lost loved ones to cancer? Has anybody NOT lost a loved one to cancer?
I work for a company that makes insulin pumps. My son has type 1 diabetes. If a cure is found, I am out of a job. It would still be the best day of my life.
What about cancers that predominate among children, will they not be allowed to be vaccinated?
Indeed, it would... in the early 1980's, when my late first wife was fighting melanoma, Siegler at Duke treated it with a vaccine made from her own tumor cells, mixed with cells from others tumors, BCG, and neurominimase ( the latter are immune system boosters )-- this was the cutting-edge treatment-- back then.
And FWIW, she died from other causes without recurrence of that highly-dangerous malignancy... and yet, immunotherapy seems to have fallen out of favor for that particular cancer. There always seem to be practical impedements to this line of attack- I can vaguely recall Coley's Mixed Toxins being mentioned in a WWI book I have on surgery- it was a vaccine made from the patient's own tumor, and had a weird record of either curing the incurable, or fatally accelerating the tumor's growth.
...I expect that it would have to be done very slowly over a long period of time....if they tried to recoup their R&D costs by pricing the vaccine high they would have a heck of a public relations problem on their hands..... maybe the government on their backs too....one thing for sure, whoever comes up with the silver bullet for cancer will have one of the toughest marketing decisions that any business could ever face...
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