"New Perspectives On Cancer and the Immune System":

unknown said:

This comment has been removed by the Moderator

Graci
Interesting comment on the immune system and colds.

Did you know that all of the symptoms of a cold are the result of our immune system responding to virus, and the stronger our immune system the worse the symptoms.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/opinion/05ackerman.html

If someone would tell me how, I would add hyperlinks.

As to the immune system and cancer, it does not matter how strong your immune response is.

To the immune system there is self and not self. When it finds not self it creates a response and, hopefully, kills it. Fever is one of those responses, and in a desperate battle against the invader the immune system will kill the host (you) with fever. Kind of a kamikaze action.

Cancer cells figure out how to fool the immune system to believe they are self (actually they are self, just a mutated self). The trick in an immune response therapy is to get your immune system to recognize the cancer cell as not self.

Sounds simple, but if you figure out how to do it you will be a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Even if you figure it out for one type of cancer, you will probably have to replicate it 199 more times. Each probably has its own special brand of disguise.

Come to think of it, it has been done once. The vaccine for the HPV virus! That vaccine triggers an immune response to the virus, so you will never get it. As a result, you won't get ovarian cancer, a mutation of HPV much the way that Shingles is a mutation of Chicken Pox.

TroVax106 said:

Trovax
I did trovax and the doc told me it trains the T and NK (white) cells to recognize and attack the 5T4 antigen on the cancer cell. Worked pretty good.

TroVacs106
Could you supply more detail?

When you say Doc, do you mean oncologist? Where did you get it? How was it administered? What is pretty good?

John23 said:

Buckwirth -

The article you're referring to is from 2008.

A more comprehensive desription and report is
here: Oxford Biomedica

Let's see how far along they can get this time....

Best wishes,

John

Yes, it was 2008
Thanks for noticing.

Here is a full list of the current 2011 drug trials that I mentioned, from the Oxford Biomedica website:

**************************************************************

TroVax®

TroVax® is a therapeutic vaccine that stimulates the immune system to destroy cancerous cells expressing the 5T4 tumour antigen which is present on most solid tumours. The product is based on an attenuated modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA), engineered to deliver the 5T4 antigen. Vaccinia viruses are commonly used as delivery systems for the development of antigen-specific vaccines. MVA is the vaccinia strain of choice because of its excellent safety profile and its effectiveness in stimulating an immune response against 'self' antigens, such as 5T4.

Phase II study in prostate cancer
TroVax® is currently in Phase II development for hormone refractory prostate cancer (HRPC. The randomised, open-label Phase II study will enrol 80 patients with metastatic HRPC in five centres across the US and will assess the activity of TroVax® plus chemotherapy drug docetaxel (Taxotere®), versus docetaxel alone. The ongoing study is led by Dr Anna Ferrari, NYU Clinical Cancer Center, and first results are expected in H2 2012.

Phase I/II study in mesothelioma
Oxford BioMedica is collaborating with a team of cancer immunologists led by Dr Zsuzsanna Tabi at Cardiff University and Dr Jason Lester, an oncologist at Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, to evaluate TroVax® in a Phase I/II study in mesothelioma (asbestos cancer). The study will be funded by the June Hancock Mesothelioma Research Fund and Oxford BioMedica will provide TroVax®. The study aims to examine the effect of TroVax® in combination with first-line chemotherapy agents as a treatment against mesothelioma. This study is anticipated to begin in 2011 and follows a feasibility project undertaken by Dr. Tabi and her team which was also funded by the June Hancock Mesothelioma Research Fund.

Other studies
The Company also anticipates a sponsored study in ovarian cancer to start in 2011.

An earlier Phase III trial in advanced and metastatic renal cell carcinoma, known as TRIST (TroVax® Renal Immunotherapy Survival Trial) was amended in July 2008, following the recommendation of the Data Safety Monitoring Board that TRIST would not meet the pre-defined primary efficacy endpoint of survival improvement. The TRIST results demonstrated that TroVax® was well tolerated but did not result in enhanced survival relative to placebo controls. However, exploratory analyses (now published in Clinical Cancer Research in November 2010) have identified sub-groups of patients where TroVax® may be of significant benefit. This trial has provided a valuable investment in the future clinical development of TroVax®.

Amongst other key factors for consideration, the TRIST results show that survival was prolonged in patients who had normal haematology prior to receiving TroVax® i.e. normal levels of platelets, monocytes and haemoglobin in their blood profile. The fact that patients who are likely to respond well to TroVax® can be identified by a simple blood test is pivotal for the planning of all future studies.


Market opportunity
At $47.7 billion, cancer is one of the largest, fastest growing markets in the pharmaceutical industry, according to MarketResearch.com. There are substantial efforts being made within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry to develop effective cancer vaccines. If TroVax® is shown to be efficacious in a pivotal registration trial for even just one of the major cancers, its market potential would be considerable. For example, in prostate cancer, the global vaccine market is expected to reach US$2.3billion in 2017 growing at a compound annual rate of 66% (source: GlobalData).

TroVax® is not prostate cancer specific, nor patient specific, and is administered in the same way as most infectious disease vaccines are given; a simple injection in the arm. If TroVax® is efficacious in several of the many cancers where it is known that 5T4 is present on the tumours, it has blockbuster potential.

Clinical proof of concept
Results from nine completed Phase I/II and II trials in colorectal, renal and prostate cancer in approximately 190 patients have shown that TroVax® is safe, well tolerated and can be administered in combination with various other treatments. Approximately 90% of patients treated with TroVax® mounted an anti-cancer immune response to the 5T4 antigen.

A cross-trial analysis of all evaluable patients showed a statistically significant association between immune responses to 5T4 and overall survival. There were no correlations between the immune response to MVA and patient survival, suggesting that the benefit associated with the 5T4 response is not related to patients’ general health status. Across all nine trials, a doubling in the 5T4-specific antibody response between the first and third vaccinations was associated with a reduction in the relative risk of death of 16% (p < 0.002).

***************************************************

This was interesting, and I take it to mean they hope for Trovax to be through trials and have approval in 2017:

"Market opportunity
At $47.7 billion, cancer is one of the largest, fastest growing markets in the pharmaceutical industry, according to MarketResearch.com. There are substantial efforts being made within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry to develop effective cancer vaccines. If TroVax® is shown to be efficacious in a pivotal registration trial for even just one of the major cancers, its market potential would be considerable. For example, in prostate cancer, the global vaccine market is expected to reach US$2.3billion in 2017 growing at a compound annual rate of 66% (source: GlobalData)."

Be well,

Blake