Article - Vaccine for Some Leukemia, Lymphoma Cancers

[Guest guest]

Of interest to some:

Reported August 24, 2005

Vaccine for Some Leukemia, Lymphoma Cancers

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- New research shows it may be possible to treat

some blood cancers with a vaccine. Researchers at the University of

Texas M. D. Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute

found a new vaccine can help the body mount its own defense against

an aggressive form of lymphoma.

Researchers say their findings are not only important for the

specific type of lymphoma they tested but also for other kinds of

blood cancers, such as leukemia.

Treatments for lymphoma destroy the body's B-cells, which are white

blood cells that produce the antibodies that tell the immune

system's T-cells to fight off diseases. It was previously thought

that once the B-cells were wiped out, a vaccine for lymphoma would

be ineffective. It's as if the B-cells were the telephone wires that

helped the vaccine call the immune system to tell the attacker T-

cells to get to work. It turns out the vaccine can make a " cellular "

call to the immune system without the B-cells.

" This is the first human cancer vaccine study to see T-cell

responses in the absence of B cells, and this paves the way to use

vaccines in a number of hematological cancers that are treated by

eliminating diseased B-cells, " says the study's lead author, Sattva

Neelapu, M.D., from M. D. .

The researchers tested their experimental vaccine on 29 patients

with mantle cell lymphoma, a difficult-to-treat cancer. All of the

patients had received treatments to destroy their B-cells. They

report an 89 percent survival rate for 46 months after administering

the vaccine. Researchers say this is an impressive survival rate for

this type of cancer.

Researchers say more testing and improvements need to be done before

the vaccine will be available.

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts

by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to:

http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

SOURCE: Published online in Nature Medicine, August 21, 2005/

doi:10.1038/nm1290

Hope this finds everyone well!

Barb