Another Cancer Vaccine

Kidney Cancer Vaccine: Last week there was a promising report about a vaccine that improved survival in lung cancer. This week, there's a similar report for a kidney cancer vaccine:

This study involved 558 renal cancer patients whose cancer had not spread beyond the kidney. Before surgery to remove the kidney, the patients had a procedure to remove tumor cells for preparation of a vaccine.

For six months after surgery, one-half of the patients got monthly injections with the vaccine.

Researchers tracked patients' progress for nearly six years.

* Overall, the vaccine group had more patients without recurrences -- 72%, compared with 59% of those who didn't get the vaccine.

* Of patients with the most advanced tumors, 66% in the vaccine group had no recurrences, compared with 47% of the controls.

The researchers say patients with risk factors for tumor progression such as large tumor size had an even greater benefit from the treatment. Doctors can consider application of the vaccine in patients undergoing surgery for renal cancer that is still confined to the kidney, the authors write.

The abstract is here. The technique sounds similar to the one used for lung cancer. Researchers used the patients' own tumor to create the vaccine. Watch this. It just might be the next big breakthrough in cancer treatment.