癌症疫苗 老鼠實驗大突破

（綜合十二日外電）美國科學家12日說，他們已發展出一種在老鼠實驗時會攻擊癌瘤的疫苗，而他們希望這種突破性的進展，有助於用來對付人體的乳癌、大腸癌、卵巢癌和胰臟癌。

雖然老鼠實驗的研究結果，經常無法直接適用於人體醫療，不過這種疫苗獨特的作用方式和強大效用，使研究人員仍懷著希望。

喬治亞大學化學教授布恩斯(Geert-Jan Boons)說，這種疫苗引發非常強烈的免疫反應，把免疫系統的三種機能全部啟動，使癌瘤平均縮小80%。

由「國家科學院期刊」發表的研究報告說，這種疫苗會訓練免疫系統，專門攻擊在細胞表面含有MUC1蛋白質的癌瘤。

一些最凶惡和死亡率最高的癌症，包括大部分乳癌、胰臟癌、卵巢癌和多發性骨髓瘤，有超過70%含有MUC1這種蛋白質。

馬友診所教授簡德勒(Sandra Gendler)說，這是首次有疫苗能夠訓練免疫系統根據MUC1之類的蛋白質的不同糖分結構，辨認和殺害癌細胞。

所謂的三重陰性乳癌患者，有90%這種蛋白質含量過高，而這種乳癌對泰莫西芬(Tamoxifen)之類的荷爾蒙療法、芳香環轉化脢抑制劑(aromatase inhibitor)或治癌藥賀癌平(Herceptin)都沒有反應，因此迫切需要新療法。

布恩斯說，僅只美國每年就發現3萬5000個新的三重陰性乳癌病例。

對付MUC1的疫苗，可以與化學治療合併使用，或對特定癌症的高風險群人員提供預防保護。

布恩斯、簡德勒和其他同事正在實驗室用人體癌細胞測試這種疫苗，並可能在2013年底對其安全性展開第一期臨床試驗。
http://www.chinesedaily.com/home_detail.asp?no=c1041895.txt&lanmu=T03&readdate=12-13-2011

突破：以色列正研發癌症疫苗

Breakthrough: Israel is Developing Cancer Vaccine

: Vaxil’s groundbreaking therapeutic vaccine, developed in Israel, could keep about 90 percent of cancers from coming back.
As the world’s population lives longer than ever, if we don’t succumb to heart disease, strokes or accidents, it is more likely that cancer will get us one way or another. Cancer is tough to fight, as the body learns how to outsmart medical approaches that often kill normal cells while targeting the malignant ones.
In a breakthrough development, the Israeli company Vaxil BioTherapeutics has formulated a therapeutic cancer vaccine, now in clinical trials at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem. If all goes well, the vaccine could be available about six years down the road, to administer on a regular basis not only to help treat cancer but in order to keep the disease from recurring.
The vaccine is being tested against a type of blood cancer called multiple myeloma. If the substance works as hoped — and it looks like all arrows are pointing that way — its platform technology VaxHit could be applied to 90 percent of all known cancers, including prostate and breast cancer, solid and non-solid tumors.
“In cancer, the body knows something is not quite right but the immune system doesn’t know how to protect itself against the tumor like it does against an infection or virus. This is because cancer cells are the body’s own cells gone wrong,” says Julian Levy, the company’s CFO. “Coupled with that, a cancer patient has a depressed immune system, caused both by the illness and by the treatment.”
The trick is to activate a compromised immune system to mobilize against the threat.
A vaccine that works like a drug
A traditional vaccine helps the body’s immune system fend off foreign invaders such as bacteria or viruses, and is administered to people who have not yet had the ailment. Therapeutic vaccines, like the one Vaxil has developed, are given to sick people, and work more like a drug.
Vaxil’s lead product, ImMucin, activates the immune system by “training” T-cells –– the immune cells that protect the body by searching out and destroying cells that display a specific molecule (or marker) called MUC1. MUC1 is typically found only on cancer cells and not on healthy cells. The T-cells don’t attack any cells without MUC1, meaning there are no side effects unlike traditional cancer treatments. More than 90% of different cancers have MUC1 on their cells, which indicates the potential for this vaccine.
“It’s a really big thing,” says Levy, a biotechnology entrepreneur who was formerly CEO for Biokine Therapeutics. “If you give chemo, apart from the really nasty side effects, what often happens is that cancer becomes immune [to it]. The tumor likes to mutate and develops an ability to hide from the treatment. Our vaccines are also designed to overcome that problem.”
For cancers in an advanced stage, treatments like chemo or surgery to remove a large tumor will still be needed, but if the cancer can be brought down to scale, the body is then able to deal with it, Levy explains. ImMucin is foreseen as a long-term strategy — a shot every few months, with no side effects — to stop the cancer from reoccurring after initial treatments, by ensuring that the patient’s own immune system keeps it under control.
In parallel, the company is also working on a vaccine that treats tuberculosis, a disease that’s increasing worldwide, including in the developed world, and for which the current vaccine is often ineffective and treatment is problematic.
Based in Ness Ziona, Vaxil was founded in 2006 by Dr. Lior Carmon, a biotechnology entrepreneur with a doctorate in immunology from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. In June, Vaxil signed a memorandum of understanding to merge its activities into Sheldonco, a company traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
By Rivka Borochov
For more info about this incredible vaccine, visit Vaxil on the web at www.vaxilbio.com

http://unitedwithisrael.org/israel-develops-cancer-vaccine/