Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 12, 1994 TAG: 9404120135
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO LENGTH: Medium
The method also could be used to develop vaccines for other forms of cancer.
The researchers used the vaccine on high-risk patients with advanced melanoma. Even after surgery, most of these patients develop additional tumors and die.
People with the advanced form of melanoma represent a small fraction of those with the disease, which is diagnosed in 32,000 Americans annually.
Dr. David Berd of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia said his team treated the patients with a vaccine made from their own cancer cells and another chemical to stimulate the immune system.
After three years, 70 percent of those vaccinated remained cancer-free, compared with 20 percent in patients treated with surgery alone, Berd told the American Association of Cancer Research on Monday.
``There is no reason why it's not applicable to other cancers,'' Berd said. ``A great deal of this work has been concentrated in melanoma merely for tradition.''
Berd said he believed anti-melanoma immunizations for high-risk patients could be available within five years, if scientists can synthesize the vaccine.
Dr. Joseph Bertino, head of pharmacology at the J.R. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said other anti-cancer vaccines are being tried, but the Jefferson results are the most striking yet.
He said he was particularly excited that the researchers were closing in on particular peptides, molecules that trigger the body's anti-tumor defenses.
He said he would like to see longer-term studies, but agreed that if the results hold up, they could help develop vaccines for other forms of cancer as well.
by CNB