An Experimental Cancer Vaccine Turned Tumor Cells Into Traitors
"A team of scientists are looking to turn cancer into its own worst enemy. Their
experimental vaccine candidate uses tumor cells modified to deliver a toxic payload to
the rest of the cancer, while also making it easier for the immune system to target and
remember the cancer in the future. In new research, the vaccine delivered promising
results against the most common form of brain cancer—at least in mice.
Cancer vaccines are generally therapeutic, meaning that they’re meant to treat existing
cancers or prevent them from returning. They try to exploit a kink in the cancer’s armor
that normally allows it to evade the immune system. Often, this has been done by
training immune cells to recognize some key part of a cancer’s cells, such as cancer-
specific proteins, using inactivated cancer cells or some other delivery method (including
viruses). But researchers at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital,
led by Khalid Shah, are working on a slightly different approach. Their plan is to take
living cancer cells and genetically modify them into traitors."
See:
https://gizmodo.com/an-experimental-...nto-1849950013