PREVENTION is the goal of most vaccines. Not so vaccines against cancer, which rally the immune system to fight an existing disease. That approach might change now that a protein has been found that stops mice developing breast cancer.
Vincent Tuohy of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and colleagues took a protein made by cancerous, breast cells, and injected it into mice engineered to develop breast cancer. This primed their immune systems to attack tumour cells and prevented cancer (Nature Medicine, DOI: 10.1038/nm.2161). As the protein is made by healthy lactating cells, too, such a vaccine might one day prevent cancer in non-lactating women.
A protein made by cancerous breast cells prevented cancer in engineered miceThat would be a first. Prostate cancer vaccine Provenge extends life but hasn't yet stopped cancer arising, while cervical cancer vaccines prime the immune system against a cancer-causing virus, not cancer itself.
- Like what you've just read?
- Don't miss out on the latest content from New Scientist.
- Get New Scientist magazine delivered to your door, plus unlimited access to the entire content of New Scientist online.
- Subscribe now and save
If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.
Have your say
Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.
All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.
If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.
Wednesday 2 June 2010
Mouse vaccine raises prospect of cancer prevention
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment