For the first time, in a study of 185-melanoma patients, an experimental vaccine that trains the immune system to seek out and attack cancer cells, including extending the time people remain free of cancer, has been shown to shrink tumors in people.

Presenting the results at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Patrick Hwu, MD, Head of Melanoma Medical Oncology, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Centre, Houston said, a custom-made treatment vaccine made with proteins from a patient's own tumour, can delay relapses by as much as
14-months in some lymphoma patients, allowing patients to live longer, but requires further study before researchers can be certain.

The melanoma vaccine, unlike that for helping prevent cervical cancer in healthy women, is designed to help people who already have cancer, and is given along with interleukin-2 or IL-2, that stimulates the immune system to attack and kill cancer cells. One in four advanced melanoma patients who received this treatment, saw a shrinking of their tumours.

The vaccine contains gp100, a substance found on the surface of melanoma cells, and the idea is to get the immune system to see this as a threat, so that it is incited into launching a stronger attack against cancer cells.

This is good news, indeed, as melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer and according to the American Cancer Society, there will be an estimated 68,720 new cases, including 8,650 deaths from the disease this year.

Study participants with advanced melanoma received either the vaccine or a placebo injection, which were followed by intravenous interleukin-2 treatment for four days. Every three weeks the treatment was repeated, until the tumour shrank or the cancer regressed.

Patients who were given the vaccine plus interleukin-2, saw a 22% shrinkage in tumors, compared with 10% of those given only interleukin-2. As well, the vaccine also extended the timeframe before the cancer progressed, from one-and-a-half months in those given interleukin-2 alone, to three months for those given both the vaccine and IL-2.

The study gives much reason for optimism, and promise that a combined approach of medication and an immune system attack on cancer cells, will prove to be the best way to control cancers like melanoma.