New vaccine approach for treatment of cancer discovered

Scientists have discovered a new approach for treating cancer based on manipulating the immune response to malignant tumours.

Vaccines for infectious diseases are highly effective at generating immune responses that prevent infection with bacteria or viruses. The immune system can also protect us against tumours and in theory a vaccine approach should be effective against cancer.

In practice this has proven very difficult because unlike infectious diseases, tumours are derived from normal human cells, and not made up of foreign substances or antigens capable of triggering an immune response.