Individualized vaccines created from a patient’s own cancer tumor may help boost the immune system’s response to the illness, according to a study conducted at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Early trials of the innovative new treatment option suggest that patient survival can be greatly improved through such vaccinations.

For the study, researchers (led by Richard Barth Jr, chief of general surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock) used dendritic cells culled from a patient’s blood to develop a personalized vaccine. Dendritic cells are an integral part of the immune system that seek out hostile antigens. By programming these dendritic cells to target a patient’s unique cancer cell manifestation, the result is an induced immune response to tumors.

As witnessed in the study, the injection of such a vaccine resulted in an effective anti-tumor response in a majority of patients.

The study included 26 patients who had tumors that had spread from the colon to the liver. All patients were surgically treated to remove the tumors. However, metastasized colon tumors are notorious for spawning regrowth following surgery. In an attempt to reduce the chances for the cancer to return, Barth and associates injected the vaccine into patients one month after surgery.

Study representatives report that 60 percent of all patients who received a vaccination displayed a favorable T-cell immune response to their tumors. Of those with a favorable response, 63 percent were alive and free of any signs of cancer after five years of treatment.

In comparison, only 18 percent of patients who did not respond to the immunization were alive and free of cancer during the same time period.

The study shows for the first time that dendritic vaccines may be useful in the treatment of cancer. Previous research efforts have attempted to show that such vaccines may be helpful in fighting larger tumor deposits. While previously unsuccessful, the vaccines may be used in conjunction with surgery to improve a patient’s chances for survival.

Additional studies are required before the efficacy and effectiveness of the treatment option can be validated. According to Barth, “This study isn’t definitive enough for us to say that everyone with colon cancer that spreads to the liver should get the vaccine. A next possible step would be to compare this vaccine with just dendritic cells which have not been pulsed with tumor antigens as a control.”

Findings of the study were published in the November issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

Sources:

http://www.smartplanet.com/business/blog/smart-takes/a-personalized-vaccine-to-combat-cancers-tumors/12609/

http://thedartmouth.com/2010/11/29/news/cancer

“For every life lost to asbestos, a shattered family is left behind.” This is the motto and the message of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) co-founder Linda Reinstein. Linda, who now serves as ADAO’s executive director, became an activist on behalf of the victims of asbestos disease in 2003, when her husband Alan was diagnosed with mesothelioma. He passed away in May 2006.

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, which Linda established in 2004 along with co-founder Doug Larkin,  is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving as the voice for all asbestos victims. Its mission includes education, outreach, networking for asbestos victims, and especially working to accomplish a complete ban of asbestos in the United States. ADAO has gotten a U.S. Senate resolution to officially declare April 1 as Asbestos Awareness Day, and hosts an annual Asbestos Awareness Day Conference to increase awareness and help prevent future exposure.

This year, the Acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson supported National Asbestos Awareness Week, the first week of April, and issued a statement about the deadly health hazard posed by asbestos.

Since co-founding ADAO, Linda has globally united countless individuals and families who have been affected by asbestos related diseases, including mesothelioma and asbestosis. She also has worked to produce awareness materials including a slide show called “Asbestos Kills,” and other educational materials including an internationally distributed online book, “Reflections,” which features articles from renowned global experts.

Last week, the ADAO launched a new resource center page on its web site, and issued a call to action for those of us in the mesothelioma community to push for a complete ban on asbestos in the United States by contacting our Congressional representatives.

There is an easy way to do it – just visit www.banasbestos.us and click on the link that says “Write Your Congressman,” which is on the home page. This will take you to a form you can fill out, and it will automatically send the message to your Congressional delegates. Remember, YOU shoud be THEIR voice on Capitol Hill!

“I need them to feel our pain,” Reinstein said. “Asbestos victims – patients, families, caregivers -  are turning their anger to action, across the nation, working for the difference we can make, together.”

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), has issued a special bulletin urging the mesothelioma community and U.S. citizens in general to step up the fight to ban asbestos in the United States. They have added a page on their web site, www.asbestosdiseaseawareness.org, that provides specific information about the health hazards of asbestos, along with helpful links to educational resources, and sample Facebook and Twitter messages they are asking everyone to post who uses those social media sites.

ADAO has dedictated its National Asbestos Awareness Resource to the memory of June Breit, who is well known in the mesothelioma community, and who recently lost her battle with the disease, as well as to the thousands of other victims “silenced by asbestos.”

According to the information on the resource page, “Asbestos can cause cancer and irreversible lung damage. Asbestos has no warning properties — you can’t see it smell it or taste it. Avoid asbestos exposure, and consult the CPSC, EPA, NIOSH, ILO and WHO guidelines, regulations and laws.”

The resource page also includes information from a statement issued by Acting Surgeon General Steven K. Long in April, in commemoration of Asbestos Awareness Day, which outlines the health hazards of asbestos and which urges Americans to become more aware of these dangers and to protect themselves from asbestos exposure.

The ADAO is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to serve as the united voice for all asbestos victims, to unite asbestos victims and educate the public and medical community about asbestos-related disease, to support research that leads to early detection, prevention and a cure; to ensure equitable compensation for victims and their families, and to ban the use of asbestos.

For more information and to participate in this awareness outreach effort, please visit the National Asbestos Awareness Resource page today, and make use of the many tools available there!