Q&A: Cancer Vaccines

Every Sunday, Cancer Services publishes a Cancer Q&A in the Health Section of The Advocate.

Q: What are cancer vaccines?

A: In order to understand vaccines, it is important to know about the immune system. A person’s immune system, from birth, knows to protect the body from foreign substances like bacteria and viruses and then remembers it in order to fight it off if the foreign substance tries to attack again. A vaccine is a type of medicine that helps the body prepare to fight disease and infection. A weakened version of the virus or bacteria is introduced into the body so that the immune system learns how to fight it.

There are two types of vaccines: preventative and treatment. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved three preventative vaccines, Gardasil®, Cervarix®, and a vaccine for the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Gardasil® and Cervarix®, protect against two types of HPV (types 16 and 18) that are responsible for 70% of cervical cancer cases. The HBV vaccine is important because it prevents hepatitis B infections, which can lead to liver cancer. Most children receive this vaccine shortly after birth.

The first treatment vaccine for cancer was approved in April 2010. Provenge® is approved for use in some men with metastatic prostate cancer. It is designed to stimulate an immune response to prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP), an antigen that is found on most prostate cancer cells. In a clinical trial, sipuleucel-T increased the survival of men with a certain type of metastatic prostate cancer by about 4 months.

Other treatment vaccines are still in the development phase, being tested to see if they can prevent a cancer from growing, keep a cancer from recurring, shrink tumors, or kill cancer cells left by other treatments.

For more information contact Courtney Britton, librarian at Cancer Services of Greater Baton Rouge at (225) 927-2273, cbritton@cancerservices.org or visit the Resource Center at 550 Lobdell Avenue.

from the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology:

Cancer Patients Relying More on Friends, Family for Treatment Advice
"Making treatment decisions with the help of family and friends is on the rise, as people widen their sources of information beyond the advice of their doctors and increasingly use the Internet and other public sources of data. In 2003, 56 percent of cancer patients and their families made their decision based upon the advice of their oncologist and 45 percent said they made their decision with the help of their primary care physician. However, in 2007, only 50 percent relied on the advice of their oncologist and 41 percent said they relied on their primary care doctor."


from Reuter's Health:

Yoga shown to help women with breast cancer
"Women with breast cancer that has spread beyond the breast may benefit from participating in a tailored yoga program that includes gentle yoga postures, breathing exercises, and meditation, new research suggests."


from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center:

Researchers uncover mutated genes involved in lung cancer; one affects nonsmokers
"Lung cancer patients who have never smoked are more likely than smokers to harbor one of two genetic mutations that researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have now linked to the disease. "This study describes the first known mutation to occur in lung cancer patients who have never smoked," said Dr. Adi Gazdar, professor of pathology in the Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Center for Therapeutic Oncology Research and senior author of the study in today's issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 'These findings may help explain why certain lung cancer patients respond dramatically to a specific form of targeted therapy while others have little or no response.' "