An Italian research group has found
an anti-cancer vaccine able to trigger immune responses to
tumours and which may boost the efficacy of immune therapy
drugs.
The discovery was made by Armenise-Harvard immuno regulatory
researchers at the Italian Institute
for Genomic Medicine (IIGM).
The vaccine uses a virus as a trojan horse, they said.
It instructs the immune system to recognize cancer cells.
The research team is based at the IRCCS Oncology Foundation
of Piedmont at Candiolo outside Turin.
The discovery was illustrated in a paper published in the
journal Science Translational Medicine.
It was realized in collaboration with the Swiss/Italian biotech
company Nouscom.
The vaccine proved effective, in association with an immuno
therapy drug, on 12 patients with a sub-type of colon cancer in
the metastatic phase.
"I consider that the technique for realizing these vaccines has
been decidedly proven and that the data obtained in the first
clinical trials are very promising," said Armenise-Harvard lab
chief Luigia Pace.
"There is now a concrete possibility of creating new vaccines
which will be effective against many other types of cancer".
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