New hope for vaccine cancer cures

A variety of circumstances have brought new hope for vaccines that don't just prevent cancer, but cure it.

Eric von Hofe, president of Antigen Express, founded by the now-retired Robert Humphreys from the University of Massachusetts, said technology, safety, and a changing regulatory environment are all contributing to the new business environment.

The technology Antigen is using is called a li-key hybrid (above). It involves replacing only some peptides in a cancerous cell, which can loosen the hold of an antigen that enables the cancer to reproduce and spread.

Because the new therapies are dealing with peptides working against proteins within cells, aimed at stimulating the immune system, rather than neutered copies of cells, they are far less-toxic than regular chemotherapy, von Hofe said, and can be tried on less advanced cancers.

"Our most advanced compound is in phase two clinical trials for breast cancer," he noted. A phase two trial is an important step in any drug's development, because success can result in a bid for FDA approval.

A phase one test on prostate cancer has also been completed. "We released some interim data last year," he said. "It's clear now that active therapeutics will have a future in terms of treating cancer. People are now accepting it."

Another reason for hope is "research into the bio-markers for specific cancers. Tons of work has been done. There's a lot known about tumor associated antigens." Thus the targets for peptide therapy keep increasing in number.

A therapeutic vaccine for cancer also has political advantages over a prophylactic vaccine like Gardasil, von Hofe said.

Most people getting a prophylactic vaccine that prevents disease won't need the protection, he noted. Therapeutic vaccines, on the other hand, must be compared with alternative therapies, which in the case of cancer means very toxic chemicals. It's an easier decision for a patient to make.

The term to use for the new class of vaccines is immuno-therapeutic vaccines, von Hofe added. It's a mouthful but descriptive. You're creating therapies that aim to stimulate the immune system.

There is still risk. There have been failures, like Dendreon. But there is also a lot of good research going in, at places like Harvard and the University of Washington. "There are networks banding together to do trials. There's infrastructure there. There are a lot of people in this field."

It's the start of something that could become very big.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com