Researchers studying customized cancer vaccines

Because every cancer is unique, scientists seek ways to deliver cost-effective, individualized treatment to each patient.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Oct. 3, 2005.

Washington -- Personalized medicine is coming full circle in cancer treatment. Individualized monoclonal antibodies had their run 30 years ago, and now vaccines that can immunize people against their own tumors hold promise.

Although customized antibodies were effective at fighting tumors, their high cost drove them from favor, and generic versions took their place.

Researchers are returning to the idea of an individualized approach to fighting cancer, but instead of making a monoclonal antibody for each person, they are exploring the possibility of teaching an individual's immune system to make its own antibodies.

Clinical trials are under way, for example, to determine the effectiveness of a cancer vaccine, and results may be forthcoming as early as next year, said Ronald Levy, MD, professor and chief of Stanford University Medical Center's oncology department.

Dr. Levy was the first to generate and use monoclonal antibodies to treat patients with lymphoma. He is now overseeing clinical trials for patients with B cell lymphoma who have been vaccinated against the receptors expressed by their own cancer cells.

"Every person will have a different cancer. This provides both a challenge and an opportunity," said Dr. Levy, who spoke at a Stanford-sponsored seminar on personalized medicine, "One Cure Does Not Fit All."

Thirty years ago, Dr. Levy and others personalized cancer treatment by developing a separate antibody for each person, and the results were promising. "In 1982, we showed how this could work in the very first person we tried it on."