Soon,a one-shot cure for all cancers

Coming soon. Universal cancer jab, say scientists who are developing the vaccine which they claim would stop all tumors in their tracks. According to the scientists, the jab is part of a new generation of drugs that use the body’s own defences to fight cancers like pancreatic, prostrate, and breast, stopping tumors in their tracks. The jabs would hit the market in just two year’s time, say the scientists. Although vaccines usually prevent disease the Telo Vac jab is designed as a treatment. Rather than attacking cancer cells, like many existing drugs, it harnesses the power of the immune system to fight the tumors, they say.

It works by encouraging the immune system to seek out and destroy an enzyme called telomerase. Found at high levels in many cancer cells, telomerase effectively makes them immortal, allowing them to live on when healthy cells would die—easing the growth and spread of the tumour. In the largest trial of its kind in the UK, more than 1000 men and women in the late stages of pancreatic cancer are either being given the vaccine alongside their normal drugs or treated as usual, the ‘Daily Mail’ reported.

The results from the 53 hospitals taking part will not be available until next year, anecdotally, some patients credit their participation in the trial with giving them an extra year or two of life. John Neoptolemos, who is co-ordinating the large scale British trial, said:“ When you have got pancreatic cancer, it is like a timebomb in people.” Pancreatic cancer cells are normally invisible to the immune system but the vaccine “spots” the telomerase spilling out from them and kick starts the fight back.

Dr. Jay Sangjae Kim, the founder of GemVax, the Korea company developing the TeloVac vaccine, said: “We strongly believe this has the potential to overcome the limits of other current cancer vaccines and become part of the standard of care not only for pancreatic cancer but for other various types of cancer.”