The ground-breaking vaccine had 97 percent success rate in mice without any side effects, and the researchers are hoping for similar success in human trials.
Immunotherapy has been making strides in cancer research for some time now. Earlier this year, a trial involving melanoma patients reported amazing results: over half of the participants had a 3-year survival rate thanks to immunotherapy drugs, which is unprecedented with this type of cancer. Now, a team of researchers at Stanford University’s School of Medicine reveals astonishing advancements with their immunotherapy-based treatment of cancer.
The Stanford scientists injected two immune-stimulating agents directly into the tumors of 90 mice who had various types of cancer, including lymphoma, breast cancer, and colon cancer. In 87 of them, all of the tumors were completely eradicated, including metastasis in mice who had their tumors spread to other parts of their body. The chemotherapy-free drug combination also didn’t cause any side-effects.
Ater the study published in the Science Translational Medicine journal revealed that the animal trial phase of the research was a roaring success, the team is ready to start testing the vaccine’s efficacy on humans. Dr. Ronald Levy, who was the lead researcher of the study, said that the first trials are scheduled to start by the end of the year and would include 35 participants.
Ideally, this would mean that, if everything goes well, we could expect this miraculous cancer vaccine to become available to the public in the next few years. The researchers are optimistic about the FDA approval because they’re using a combination of drugs already approved for human use- it’s the unique combination that’s credited with the astounding results.
More and more researchers are turning to immunotherapy as a cancer treatment, and it seems that they’re looking in the right direction- the reports we have been seeing do give cause for hope. If the trend of successful trials and visionary research continues, we could be seeing a cure for cancer developed in the following decades.
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