Cancer vaccines come in two forms

By Vera Viner

The medical sector has been focused on a prevention route to dealing with disease. This means that doctors and healthcare professionals are attempting to prevent cancer instead of treating it after diagnosis. As this blog has stated previously, a healthy diet and exercise  could go a long way to keeping away chronic illnesses like breast cancer or heart disease.

The Breast Health and Healing Foundation has also been aimed at funding another venue for preventing breast cancer – the cancer vaccine developed by Dr. Vincent Tuohy at the Cleveland Clinic. This vaccine was 100 percent effective when tested in mice and further research is necessary to determine if it is safe and effective in women.

HealthDay News reported that various researchers are also using the body’s own immune system to develop vaccines that can help treat cancer after diagnosis.

“Essentially, cancer treatment vaccines are the ultimate in personalized medicine,” Dr. Linda Liau, director of the brain tumor program at the University of California, Los Angeles, told the news source.

Currently, there are developments taking place in treating both pancreatic and brain cancer through vaccines. These treatments could keep the cancer from recurring, the source explained. Nonetheless, preventive vaccines have the potential to stop cancer from forming and thereby lower overall costs and loss of life associated with treating the disease.

“This is an area that remains in its infancy, and I think we only have brighter things to look forward to,” Dr. Jeffrey Hardacre, associate professor of surgery and head of the pancreatic surgery section at the University Hospitals’ Seidman Cancer Center, told the publication’s reporter. “Using the body’s immune system is a potent way to fight cancers.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already approved a few preventive vaccines for treating cervical and liver cancers. They work similarly to other immunity-based prevention techniques by directing this body system to target the virus connected to cancer development.

Breast cancer could also be prevented if Dr. Tuohy’s vaccine is fully funded and research shows it is safe and effective in women. Through prevention, thousands of lives could be saved from the severity of this disease.