Leukemia patients taking the drug Gleevec (imatinib mesylate) still had cancer cells present after one year. Human clinical studies of GVAX Leukemia vaccine developed by BioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc. showed that it was possible to reduce or eliminate the last remaining cancer cells in some chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients taking Gleevec.
Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center investigators used a vaccine made from CML cells. The cancerous potential of the CML cells was halted by irradiating them. The cells were also genetically altered to produce an immune system stimulator called GM-CSF.
The treated cells also carried antigen molecules specific to CML cells that prime the immune system to recognize and kill circulating CML cells.
Cancer vaccines may be a good way to mop up the residual disease according to Dr Levitsky, Professor of oncology, medicine and urology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, in Baltimore, Maryland.
Read the news at BioMed Reports.
