More about the Science

The development of conventional preventative vaccines figures among mankind's greatest scientific achievements. Such innovations were an effective means of dramatically reducing mortality from scourges such as viral polio myelitis, smallpox, and measles.  The vaccines for these diseases, along with the newer Human papilloma virus and Hepatitis B vaccines, all use part of the viral protein coat as a stimulant for the immune system’s recognition abilities.  The vaccination process educates the immune system to attack the invading organisms via recognition of foreign biomolecules. 

Cancers engender a much more subtle situation:  they are not truly foreign to the body.  Derived from the body’s own cells, tumor cells look very much like normal, healthy cells.  While the bacteria and viruses that invade the body are easily recognized as “non-self” and destroyed, the immune system has a difficult time differentiating between tumor cells and healthy cells.  This situation is further exacerbated by the cancer cell’s ability to hide from the immune system’s killer T cells.  In all human cells, pieces of proteins are routinely displayed on the surface to be inspected by killer T cells.  If the proteins are recognized as normal fragments that should be present in the cell, the T cell proceeds on its way.  If the peptide is unrecognized, or is out of place, the cell will be destroyed. 

The vaccine will take cell surface antigens—the proteins and sugars from the exteriors of cells—and use them to provoke an immune response in a person.  The cancer-related cell surface antigens are unique or are more abundant on cancer cells than on normal cells. These can act as markers for the body to recognize the dangerous cells.  The immune system will initiate a cascade of events that will ultimately form antibodies to the antigens.  This will allow the body to target cells with the antigens and destroy them before they can form tumors. This way, the dangerous cells can be eliminated without collateral damage to healthy cells. 

With success in cancer vaccine therapy, the technology can be used to produce a near-universal, prophylactic cancer vaccine and that will make cancer a disease of the past.