Cancer vaccines are beginning to gain more interest in the medical community. Research into cancer vaccines is continuing to grow and many clinical trials are currently underway. The premise behind a cancer vaccine is to help the body’s immune system fight off and protect itself from any type of infectious agents, including cancer cells. The FDA has in fact already approved of two vaccines. One is known as Gardasil, which protects against the human papillomavirus. The other is a prostate cancer vaccine known as Provenge. Clinical trials are using vaccines to treat lymphomas, breast, brain, kidney, melanoma, leukemia, prostate, pancreatic, lung, kidney and cervical cancers and well as solid tumors.
Cancer vaccines work by protecting the body from infection. They are based on antigens that are commonly carried by infectious agents. These antigens are easy for the immune system to recognize as foreign. One particularly powerful cancer vaccine that can potentially outsmart the cancer cell is known as a dendritic cell vaccine.
The Problem with Cancer Cells and How Dendritic Cell Vaccines Can Help: The immune system often does not “see” cancer cells as dangerous or foreign, as it generally does with microbes. Therefore, the immune system does not mount a strong attack. Cancer cells develop genetic changes that create a “chemical message”. This can essentially trick the killer T cells of the body to not mount an assault against them because they cannot recognize them as dangerous. So although the body will attack the cancer cells the immune system may not do so as strongly as it does when it detects various other rogue cells.
The immune system contains Dendritic cells: These cells help to identify pathogens in the body. In a healthy immune system there are specific cells whose sole purpose is to defend the body against disease. Additionally, these specialized cells maintain a “memory” and will be able to recognize dangerous microbes or cells if they ever return again. The concept of the dendritic cell vaccine is to work with this natural response that already occurs in the human body. Dendritic cells will locate viruses and cancerous cells. Once identified they will produce the antigen to the body’s t-lymphocyte cells. These t-lymphocytes will then begin to multiply and attack the invading cells.
The Dendritic Cell Vaccine: The dendritic cell vaccine became approved for use by the FDA in 2010 and is in clinical trials. This vaccine involves a very specific process. Dendritic Blood cells are extracted from a patient and then processed in a laboratory setting to produce them in large amounts. They are then exposed to the antigens of the patient’s cancer cells. Then the cells are reinjected back into the patient where they are attempting to program the cells to now respond more aggressively against the cancerous cells.
The Dendritic Cell Vaccines Stimulates the immune system. The vaccine is designed to activate the B and T killer cells to recognize and attack the cancer cells. B cells work by making an antibody which destroys bad cells. Killer T cells will make the invader cell self destruct through a process known as “apoptosis”. The dendritic cell acts in a supporting role to the B and killer T cells by helping to activate them more effectively.
Potential Side Effects: Dendritic Vaccines are generally considered safe but may have side effects depending on individual response. These can include itchiness or rash, weakness or more seriously, occasionally breathing difficulties. Any treatment that impacts on the immune system may of course carry more serious risks although not common which can be life threatening.
Combining Conventional Treatments with Dendritic Cell Vaccines: Many of the current clinical trials are using the vaccine in combination with traditional therapies such as chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. Some trial results are indicating an overall increase in the effectiveness of other treatments. Research is being conducted to determine when a cancer vaccine works best when given along with conventional therapies in order to produce optimal immune system responses.
The Future: Much research is being conducted to understand just how cancer cells are able to avoid or even suppress a powerful immune system attack on them. Work is being done on developing vaccines and other mechanisms to override this response of the immune system. Combining a vaccine such as the dendritic cell vaccine with such other novel treatments may be able to greatly improve the ability of the body to find and destroy the cancer cells. As more and more cancer vaccines are being developed researchers are hopeful to one day be able to provide more answer to this suffering with cancer.
The Issels Medical Center in Santa Barbara, California is a world renowned alternative treatment center. The Issels Treatment is an Integrative Immunotherapy program with a 50 year history. Founded in 1951 by a pioneer in integrative cancer medicine, Dr. Josef Issels, MD., a German oncologist, The Issels Medical Center in Santa Barbara, California treats patients with all natural non toxic therapies for a variety of health conditions including cancer.
