Pancreas cancer vaccine trialled

2011-04-14 21:05:41

14 April 2011 Last updated at 21:07 Share this page Delicious Digg Facebook reddit StumbleUpon Twitter Email Print TeloVac pancreatic cancer vaccine trial launched in UK By Fergus Walsh Medical correspondent, BBC News

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There is rarely positive news about pancreatic cancer. It has the worst survival rate of all common cancers - worse even than lung cancer”

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The TeloVac trial is being funded by Cancer Research UK. The charity is supporting trials against a range of cancers, using vaccines or antibody treatments to stimulate the immune system.

Cancer Research UK's chief clinician Professor Peter Johnson said: "One of big problems with cancer treatment is you are almost always left with a few malignant cells and it is from those few cells that the cancer can regrow.

"If you can programme the immune system to recognise those cells and get rid of them altogether or keep them in check then you can effectively stop the cancer from growing back lifelong."

The South Korean manufacturer of the vaccine, KAEL-GemVax, is planning a lung cancer trial later this year using the same technology.

Last year the first therapeutic cancer vaccine was licensed in the US as a treatment against prostate cancer.

The Phase III or final stage TeloVac trial should produce results in just over a year which will show whether the vaccine has a positive effect.

Cancer Research UK is keen to stress that the vaccine is not a cure, but if it works, might prolong life.

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