An early trial of a vaccine to treat prostate cancer looks to be safe and effective in a small sample of people. The vaccine in question works by activating the immune system in men with metastatic prostate cancer. The vaccine enables the immune system to produce anti-antigents to attack cancer cells. This in turn improves quality of life and increases chances for survival. The study was primarily to see whether the vaccine was safe and if it produced serious side-effects.
An incredible 68-70 percent of the patients in the trial had a positive immune response to the vaccine. There were a total of 32 men with metastic prostate cancer and they were treated with one of three different doses of the vaccine. They were then watched for a 12 month period. Not only was an activation of the immune system seen, but 57 percent of the patients survived longer than was predicted, where 48 percent doubled their life expectancy.
In response to these results, a phase II trial has started which will determine whether the immune responses and increased survival rates seen in the first trial is significant or meaningful in a bigger group of patients. If a correlation between the vaccine and immune system response is found, the vaccine could become another therapy option.
Other experts are more wary of the results found saying that all that was proved is safety and not efficacy. One expert claims that the vaccine has actually been proven to work. There have been other major disappointments in the last couple of decades concerning immune therapies that looked promising but did not produce the wanted results. Future research will determine whether this vaccine is indeed the breakthrough that the medical world has been looking for to fight prostate cancer.
[Source: MedLinePlus]
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