Ithaca (WSYR-TV) - A vaccine to help better combat certain cancers is now in its clinical trial stages. It's being produced at Cornell University's Bioproduction Facility.
Researchers hope the vaccine will revolutionize how cancer is treated. It's called NY-ESO-1 and it's a protein found in cancer cells. Right now trials are being performed on patients facing ovarian cancer or melanoma. The goal is to maximize the body's immune response to the protein.
Dr. Carl Batt is the Bioproduction Facility Director. “What were looking for is to develop sort of a cocktail of different types of proteins and different types of other molecules to make your body respond to this tumor which it normally doesn't respond to.”
Researchers don't expect the vaccine to prevent cancer, but stimulate the body to fight an existing tumor. “Once we understand how your body responds to it, then hopefully later clinical trials will be useful for developing a real therapeutic something that can actually cure cancer.”
Researchers say it’s still too early to figure out if the vaccine will lead to a cure, but it is showing some significant promise. “While were just looking for minimal responses, we do have miracles that occur and patients do respond to these vaccines and they do have tumor regressions.”
It’s making the research being done a crucial component in the continuing fight against cancer.
The clinical trials are part of the cancer vaccine collaborative, a joint program of the Cancer Research Institute and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. The first phase of the clinical trials are expected to be complete in one to two years.
