Vaccine 'cure' for cancer

Damn, this would be wonderful if it turns out to be true. However, such a "cure" would be a financial disaster for the medical community, which has grown to rely on "repeat customers" who have to come back regularly, to pay each time, just to stay alive.

A healthy customer doesnt make money for the doctors.

I have a feeling, even if it does work, the FDA will fudge something to make it fail, as it just isn't as profitable as repeated courses of cytotoxic chemotherapy.



LONDON
22/09/03 - News and city section

Vaccine 'cure' for cancer
By Isabel Oakeshott, Evening Standard

Scientists said today they are on the brink of a major cancer breakthrough with a revolutionary vaccine.

The new technique has produced dramatic results against one of the most vicious cancers, that of the pancreas, which has a 95 per cent mortality rate.

The findings, which raise hope that a cure is within reach, are being unveiled at a major international conference in Copenhagen.

An American team was revealing a new treatment-based on the body’s ability to fight disease. Patients were given powerful injections of material taken from their own cells, designed to assist their immune systems, recognise and attack the disease.

The vaccines are designed for patients who already have cancer and help their bodies over-whelm the tumours. They are tailor-made to each individual, using so-called heat-shock proteins produced by the body to help cells rebuild themselves after potentially lethal attacks.

Today the US team said that almost a third of the patients lived twice as long as expected — for at least two years. One patient was alive and disease-free after five years.

Typical life expectancy after surgery for pancreatic cancer is just over one year.

www.thisislondon.com...