The new cancer vaccine can help increase the patient’s odds of survival.
We may be just decades away from devising a cure for all types of cancer, but, at the moment, scientists are struggling to find out a way to prolong the patient’s life. And it would seem that a team from Mary Crowley Cancer Center is on the verge of a major breakthrough. The doctors can keep cancer in check with a new vaccine that uses a patient’s tumor cells.
But before heading on over to the treatment itself, let’s talk a while about the patients who were chosen to participate in this novel clinical trial.
Carly Rutledge is a 15-year old college student. A while ago, Carly’s doctors broke the news to her and her family. The 15-years old was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. According to her physicians, this type of cancer is, in most cases, highly deadly and it can spread quite rapidly.
In Carly’s case, traditional courses of treatment such as chemotherapy or immunotherapy would have had no results. In fact, according to Carly’s own testimony, immunotherapy had the opposite effect.
Before being enlisted in this new clinical trial, Carly underwent chemo on a regular basis, some of the treatments lasting for 5 days. After enduring the debilitating effects of chemotherapy, Carly was asked to participate in a new clinical trial with involved a new type of cancer management drug.
A few years after starting the treatment, Carly returned to school, after her doctors acknowledge that her cancer was in remission.
Doctor Neumunaitis, another medical scientist, working with Baylor Hospital, the center where the trial took place, remember another case involving this novel cure.
A proud father received the news that his daughter is getting married. It was a time of joy and anticipation for the father until the doctors diagnosed him with an aggressive form of cancer. According to his doctors, the father had only a few months to live.
After undergoing the trial, the patient is now cancer-free and is doing a great job caring for his grandnephew.
Doctors can keep cancer in check with a new vaccine that employs a patient’s own cancerous cell. According to doctor Maurizio Ghisoli, one of the scientists involved in the project, this is how the new treatment works. After diagnosing a patient, the doctors harvest a fresh batch of his cancer cells.
The patient’s cancer cells undergo several treatments in the lab, before being injected back in the patient’s blood stream. After the process is complete, the body recognizes the destructive potential of the back-engineered cell and devises powerful antibodies in order to take them down. The body can use the information from these back-engineered cells in order to keep cancer in check.
If the treatment is approved by the FDA, patients will require injections once a month.
Photo credits:www.deviant.net
