Italians find effective anti-cancer vaccine

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 11 - 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".
    (ANSA).