Musings on Nanomedicine: Cancer Vaccines

When we think about vaccines, we usually remember the ones we got for COVID-19, measles or chickenpox. Recently, vaccines have been developed to help the immune system fight cancer cells [American Cancer Institute].?

• One type of vaccine is given after standard treatment to stop cancer from returning.
• Another type of vaccine is made to prevent certain cancers from developing in the first place.

Vaccines to help prevent cancer

If vaccines can help prevent infections, they might also be active against cancers that are caused by viruses.? This type of vaccines is not actually active against cancer cells (because these cells have not yet formed) but the vaccine prevents an infection by a virus such as the human papillomavirus (HPV) or the hepatitis B virus (HBV).

Switzerland runs a big campain and is vaccinating 7th graders against HPV because the vaccination works best before the first sexual contact.

But ?most cancers are probably not caused by infections. How to use vaccines to fight these cancers?

Vaccines to help treat cancer

The second type of vaccines comes into play when cancer is already found in the patient. Now, the vaccines support the immune system to mount an attack against the cancer cells.

Chemotherapy uses toxic substances that harm both cancer and normal cells, leading to significant side effects. In contrast, the immune system can precisely target only cancer cells. This precision is due to the targeting of unique mutations found only on tumor cells.

The difficulty lies in identifying those unique mutations of the patient’s cancer. After the mutation is identified, a personalized vaccine can be formulated for the for each patient. This takes several weeks.

In order to have more punch against the tumor, vaccines in recent trials have been combined with common, off-the-shelf anticancer medication and for certain types of cancers, it seems even possible to go all the way off-the-shelf.

Early Clinical Trials: Promising Results

Recent clinical trials report promising results with patients showing:

• Higher Survival Rates: Recent data indicates a notable enhancement in survival rates relative to conventional treatments.
• Reduced Recurrence: The targeted methodology results in a decreased probability of cancer recurrence.
• Enhanced Quality of Life: The reduction in side effects contributes to an improved overall quality of life for patients.

These findings suggest that personalized cancer vaccines could be a significant advancement in cancer treatment, offering patients better outcomes and improved well-being.

#cancertreatment #nanomedicine #cancer

See this article in the concept of the "Musings on Nanomedicine" mind map: https://app.thebrain.com/brain/713d0c44-688e-4c89-97c5-e6c8d43c28ad/76a5379a-92cc-4474-9e23-d2059a1e528d