RE: Marcus 12 (46465)5 Nov 2021 08:47
"The logic behind the HPV vaccine was simple: eliminate the virus, and we might just be able to eliminate cervical cancer, too. And it seems to have worked. “With one fell swoop you’re taking out a big problem; it’s a big deal,” says Godfrey.
HPV is also thought to be responsible for most cases of six other types of cancer, including vaginal cancer, vulval cancer, anal cancer and cancer of the *****. Scientists expect the HPV vaccine to have a similarly dramatic effect on those cancers, though we don’t yet have the data to show it (unlike cervical cancer, those other cancers tend to affect older people, and the HPV vaccine has only been used widely in the UK for a decade).
Covid’s rocket fuel - All of the vaccines mentioned thus far employ a fairly traditional method: they deliver to the body a small parcel of virus, teaching our immune system how to fight it. But this, of course, only works for cancers caused by viruses – which is a fairly small number, says Godfrey.
Vaccinating against a cancer that isn’t caused by a virus is much more complicated. While virus particles tend to look identical (allowing our immune system easily to recognise HPV, for example), cancer cells are infinitely varied, leaving our immune systems befuddled. Cancer “puts other diseases in the shade, effectively, because it’s us malfunctioning in a million different ways,” says Godfrey. “That makes it much more technically challenging.”
But scientists are accepting the task. “That’s where the future is.” One method under serious consideration is the mRNA route – the new type of vaccine that burst on to the scene amid the Covid crisis (Pfizer’s jab is the best-known example). While traditional vaccines (such as AstraZeneca) inject us with a package of virus, mRNA teaches our bodies how to build those packages themselves, essentially turning our cells into mini laboratories.
And the mRNA method could transform our fight against cancer. BionTech, the company that created the Pfizer jab, already has a cancer vaccine in phase two (of three) of a clinical trial. To use the mRNA method, scientists would “take out a piece of lung tumour or breast cancer or colon cancer or melanoma and sequence it” to reveal its genetic code, explains Drew Weissman, professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, whose work was central to the creation of the mRNA method.
Breast cancer - It’s among the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the UK; now scientists think breast cancer might be tackled with vaccines. This week, researchers in the US launched a well-publicised trial, testing a new vaccine against the most aggressive form of breast cancer, triple-negative (which is currently only treatable with a mastectomy).
The vaccine will target a protein called a-lactalbumin, which plays a key role in the production of breast milk, and is usually only produced by the body during pregnancy and lactation . . . . ." TBC
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