Vaccine holds promise against ovarian cancer
A novel approach to cancer immunotherapy — strategies designed to induce the immune system to attack cancer cells — may provide a new and cost-effective weapon against some of the most deadly tumors, including ovarian cancer and mesothelioma. Investigators from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Vaccine & Immunotherapy Center report in the Journal of Hematology & Oncology that a protein engineered to combine a molecule targeting a tumor-cell-surface antigen with another protein that stimulates several immune functions prolonged survival in animal models of both tumors. “Some approaches to creating cancer vaccines begin by extracting a patient’s own immune cells, priming them with tumor antigens, and returning them to the patient, a process that is complex and expensive,” said Harvard Medical School Associate Professor Mark Poznansky, senior author of the report and director of the MGH Vaccine & Immunotherapy Center. “Our study describes a very practical, potentially broadly applicable, and low-cost approach that...