Cancer jab starves tumours
25 May 2006
A cutting-edge vaccine is boosting hopes for better cancer treatment. Swedish scientists say the vaccine stops mice getting cancer, and slows tumour growth in mice that already have the killer disease. Antenna investigates...
Image: National Cancer Institute
The vaccine works by triggering the body to produce its own defence mechanisms, known as antibodies, against the cancer. These antibodies attack new blood vessels - starving tumours of oxygen and nutrients.
These blood vessels have been stained to show the antibodies in fluorescent blue.
Image: Lars Holmgren
'Our vaccine tricks the body into producing antibodies which stop new blood vessels from attaching themselves to a tumour. This is a new approach to fighting cancer that seems to last longer than present treatments.' Lars Holmgren, cancer expert, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
Lars Holmgren, cancer expert, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
Image: Karolinska Institutet
The vaccine stops new blood vessels attaching to tumours like this one. This starves the cancer of oxygen and nutrients.
Image: Lars Holmgren
To test their vaccine, the team of scientists gave it to mice with breast cancer. After vaccination, the mice produced antibodies that stopped the tumour from growing - keeping it in check for over five months. |
The vaccine was also tested on genetically engineered mice. These mice should have developed breast cancer much faster than ordinary mice - but they didn't.
'When using our vaccine in combination with a vaccine hitting the tumor directly, mice that would normally have got cancer were protected for their whole life. Although these experiments were with breast cancer, it seems likely that the vaccine will work for other types of cancer too.'Lars Holmgren
Image: National Cancer Institute
DNA in the vaccine triggers the body's defence mechanism to fight against the cancer.
The vaccine helps starve tumours because it contains the DNA for a protein found on new blood vessels. This helps the mouse's immune system create the right antibodies to recognise and fight the blood vessels feeding the cancer. |
It's not the first time that cancer experts have tried to block the blood vessels that feed cancer tumours. When scientists discovered a drug called angiostatin about ten years ago, they hoped it might be a magic bullet for cancer treatment. But angiostatin doesn't last long in the body and must be injected regularly in high doses to be effective. |
The Swedish scientists designed their vaccine to produce antibodies which attack in the same way as angiostatin. But because the vaccine triggers the body to produce its own antibodies to block new blood vessels, the effect lasts for much longer.
'Angiostatin doesn't last long enough to work properly and is gone after about three hours. But after receiving this new vaccine, the mice produce antibodies that work in just the same way but the effect lasts for up to 20 days.'Lars Holmgren
'Cancer researchers are constantly striving for better ways to prevent, detect and treat cancer. Disrupting the blood supply to tumours is an extremely promising area of research as without this supply most tumours cannot grow beyond the size of a grain of sugar.
'While this research is intriguing it has only been done in laboratory models of the disease and is also only at a very early stage. More work is needed to determine whether the approach is safe and effective in humans and whether it could play a role in future cancer treatment.'Emma Knight, Science Information Officer, Cancer Research UK
Emma Knight, Science Information Officer, Cancer Research UK
Image: Cancer Research UK
There's still a long way to go before this vaccine makes it to the bedside, but it definitely looks promising as one of the cancer treatments of the future. |