Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/NV89fz9pmhY   Personalized vaccines designed to spur immunity to a patient’s own cancer can control nasty tumors up to four years.  This exciting news comes from the immuno-oncologists at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.   The study treated 8 patients who had advanced and potentially deadly melanoma with genetically-engineered vaccines that induce immunity to specific markers on their own tumors.  When the patients were followed for a median of four years after vaccination, all 8 patients were alive, and 6 had no signs of cancer.  Each patient had persisting tumor-killing T lymphocytes during the entire follow up period.   Such anti-tumor vaccines may help patients whose cancers have evaded conventional surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and conventional immunotherapy.   https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-01206-4   #vaccine #cancer #melanoma