That Happened!

New York - With over 19.000 cases of glioma, the most common type of brain cancer, occurring in the United States each year, wouldn’t you feel better knowing that there was a vaccine available that could increase life span and decrease the symptoms? The National Cancer Institute is going to sponsor two new trials of the vaccine to test the merit of the growing in popularity, antigenics vaccine – one in children and one in adults to test the veracity of the vaccine.

In recent studies, Dr. Andrew Parsa is the lead investigator of the trial has discovered interesting results, as the results seem to occur in correlation with a patient-specific, measurable immune response. When patients of the trial were given the antigenics vaccine, there is a visible change in the patients immune system.

Phase one of the study has been complete, and phase two is scheduled to begin this year, with the results being presented early in 2009. These trials have involved twelve people; therefore the results can be hard to correlate as the study has involved so few people. Of course, future trials are being started; therefore we will have additional results in the future containing more patients.

Despite being early in treatment, the studies have yielded positive results – as in Russia, these treatments have been approved to treat patients suffering from Kidney cancer. Apparently, the vaccine has been successful in stopping cancer from spreading to other parts of the body from the kidneys. We have not seen the same success in the United States. Cancer that has been surgically removed from the body is the target of the vaccine.

Studies have shown that those diagnosed with brain cancer, and given the vaccine lived an average of 10.5 months after treatment. How is this significant? In the past, when studies have been completed, patients living after brain cancer treatment lived an average of 6.5 months.

Patients who were given the controversial treatment lived an average of four months longer than traditional treatments. Is this coincidence? Most health care professionals coincide that more research must be completed, but realise the potential within the vaccine. In the past, all patients that had received the treatment in conjunction with chemotherapy had seen the cancer recur, those that have received the vaccines had seen decreased instances of the cancer recurring.

Approval in the United States is looking unlikely, as the treatments have failed to yield positive results in skin cancer and kidney cancer trials with patients. The treatment did not meet the initial goals created with the hypothesis. Oncophage was the name of the vaccine, which was seemingly unsuccessful.

Only time will tell, as well as additional studies if the antigenics vaccines are going to be successful in the treatment of cancer and become regular treatment for the disease.