When we often think of a vaccine, we think of the ones used to prevent certain diseases from causing disease in our bodies. They work to prevent disease by introducing weakened or killed viruses or bacteria into the body to mount an immune response. This immune response leads to memory which prepares the body for if this disease was ever encountered in daily life. Cancer vaccines work different from regular vaccines in that instead of preventing the disease, the vaccine works to promote the immune system to attack the cancer cells already existing in the body. Some of these vaccines are comprised of cancer cells, parts of cells, or pure antigens. Sometimes the doctor take the patient’s own immune cells and mixes them with these components to make the vaccine.
Sipuleucel-T (Provenge®)
Currently there is only one vaccine approved in the United States to treat prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the second most common male cancer in the world, affecting around 1.3 million people and killing more than 360,000 people per year (4% of cancer deaths worldwide). Prostate cancer is very treatable in its early stages but after it has metastasized, the survival rate drops to 30% so there is a great need for treatment options. The vaccine used to treat prostate cancer is called sipuleucel-T which is made from taking immune cells from the patient and exposing them to chemicals that differentiate them into dendritic cells. The dendritic cells are also exposed to prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) which allows the vaccine to elicit an immune response against prostatic cancer cells. When the vaccine is injected into the body, the dendritic cells help other immune system cells attack the cancer cells.
Until researching this topic, I had no idea there are vaccines used to treat cancer. I find this treatment option particularly important because my grandfather currently has prostate cancer. With new treatment options becoming available for people like my grandfather, more lives can be saved. Now more cancer vaccines need to be approved by the FDA so that more cancers in the United States besides prostate cancer can be treating using immunotherapy.
Vaccine Culture 