Personalized Cancer Vaccines Vanquish Melanoma in Small Study

Scientific American ------ A small pilot study raises hopes that personalized cancer vaccines might prove safer and more effective than immune-based therapies already in use or further along in development. In a paper published online in Nature on Wednesday, scientists reported that all six melanoma patients who received an experimental, custom-made vaccine seemed to benefit: their tumors did not return after treatment. Researchers not involved in the study praised its results, but with caveats. The scientists “did a beautiful job,” said MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Greg Lizee, an expert in tumor immunology, who called the results “very encouraging.” But because the study did not include a comparison group of patients who received standard treatment and not the vaccine, he cautioned, “it’s not completely proved yet that the lack of [cancer] recurrence was due to the vaccine.” To learn more click on the picture below to read the article.