FDA approved the first vaccine against cancer

For decades, scientists have been trying to create a vaccine against cancer, that is a drug that can mobilize the immune system of the patient to fight the malignant tumor cells. Recently, a drug intended to treat metastatic prostate cancer, first obtained the approval of FDA - U.S. governmental agency for the quality and safety of food and drugs.

FDA allowed to treat patients with prostate cancer with vaccine Provenge manufactured by Dendreon corporation. This event may go down in history as the beginning of a revolution in oncology - the first time in many decades doctors will have a fundamentally new drug to combat malignant tumors in addition to the long-known triad "surgery - chemotherapy - radiation”.

Dr. Philip Kantoff who participated in the clinical trials of Provenge, believes that in five to ten years immunotherapy will occupy a central place in the treatment of cancer.

In the near future doctors may get a vaccine to treat other types of cancer - melanoma and neuroblastoma. These drugs are already in the final stages of development.

Unfortunately, immunotherapy has not yet cured cancer patients. Clinical trials of vaccine Provenge in patients suffering from prostate cancer in the last stage, only allowed to extend the life of patients with an average of four months. The only alternative treatment for such patients hitherto was Taxotere, which allows to postpone the death by three months.

The vaccine will not be used instead of traditional methods of treatment but along with them. The course of treatment per patient is U.S. costs $ 93,000, as the vaccine for each patient is made individually, based on his own blood cells.

Side effects of the new treatment are much milder than during chemotherapy: fever, chills, headache, fatigue.