Original story
APNWeb 1.2.2004
WHO gives approval to first-generation “cancer vaccines”
The World Health Organization has granted worldwide licences for the use of the first vaccine-like treatments for cancer.
The vaccines, targeting colon cancer and certain forms of brain tumour, have shown impressive results in clinical trials held in Europe, North America and Japan. Experts have spoken of up to 40% improved chances of total recovery. The key issue with the vaccines is that they are effective even after the cancer has been diagnosed in the patient. The joint developers of the drug, the American Cancer Foundation and the Hartmann Laboratory at the University of Helsinki in Finland, are reluctant to talk of a vaccine as such, but prefer to describe the treatment as a “smart drug” that operates somewhat in the same fashion as vaccination, though without the normal aspect of introducing into the body a weakened culture of the agent causing the disease.
The treatment has two parallel effects. Researchers at the Hartmann Laboratory have developed a procedure by which the drug can recognize a cancer cell and approach it. The U.S. contingent, meanwhile, have supplied the technology to alter by gene manipulation the natural human killer cells (those genes close to the bcl-1 gene), in order that after recognition they can attach themselves to the cancer cells, then secrete certain antibodies and surround the cancer cells - and in many cases go on to destroy at least a part of them.
Experts are nevertheless very wary of headlines claiming that cancer has been defeated. Prof. Mauno Kosma of the University of Helsinki’s team acknowledges that many important steps have been taken in the treatment of the disease, but argues that the best treatment is still a combination of traditional drugs, surgery, and chemotherapy. The new drugs now receiving WHO approval will be particularly useful in improving the prognoses for such treatment, since they isolate the cancer and effectively prevent its spread. Some three years ago a completely new drug was introduced into the cancer treatment arsenal, when medical authorities approved the sale of AngioStat. Malignant cells make use of the body’s normal regulating mechanisms and stimulate the growth of blood vessels to ensure themselves a supply of nutrition. In lab tests using AngioStatin - a drug designed to limit the development of new blood vessels - it was discovered that the treatment blocked the growth of cancer cells, and even caused some tumours to shrink by means of restricting their access to nutrition. Clinical trials of anti-angiogenesis drugs like this were undertaken as long ago as 1992, and medical forecasters predict that AngioStatin and derivatives will also have a future in the treatment of diabetes and the associated problem of diabetic retinopathy.
Researchers are also expecting much from the current crop of genetic engineering studies. In 1997 a team at the University of Helsinki isolated a cancer-enhancing genetic flaw from the 19th chromosome, and this step turned out to be decisive for the mapping of cancer genes that followed. Prior to this, two other genetic flaws had been discovered, both of which generated a tendency towards hereditary cancers. In the years since, several more mutations have been discovered and thanks to this work specific risk groups have been placed under closer medical screening.
Prof. Kosma also cautions against the commonplace assumption that cancer is one and the same disease, when it is rather an umbrella term to describe dozens of tumorous complaints, each differing from the last. He goes on to warn that the ongoing trend in higher life expectancies will increase the number of cancers we have to face, as cancers are a natural part of the human ageing processes, and we shall just have to get used to having them around. Today already more than one person in four will get some form of tumour in the course of his or her life.
Numerous international laboratories and research centres are feverishly engaged on the search for similar vaccines that would be effective against other strains of cancer. At this stage the results of clinical trials, and possible WHO approval thereafter, are eagerly awaited from vaccines that could be used to treat liver cancer and both forms of lung cancer.
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- Ilmiön toteuma: 4/5
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- Ilmiön ydin: jo todettua syöpää hoidetaan immuunijärjestelmää ohjaavalla rokotteen kaltaisella täsmähoidolla.
Syövän immuunihoidot ja terapeuttiset syöpärokotteet ovat toteuttaneet periaatteen; esimerkiksi potilaan omia immuunisoluja aktivoiva hoito hyväksyttiin kliiniseen käyttöön. Hoidot eivät ole yleinen WHO:n hyväksymä rokote kaikkiin kasvaimiin.
Johtopäätös: ydin syöpää vastaan suunnatusta immuunihoidosta toteutui olennaisilta osin.