This patient-friendly article is about chemotherapy drug, BLP25 (Stimuvax) which is a new drug currently in Phase III trials. It was originally developed by scientists at Cancer Research UK and further developed by a small Canadian Biotech company and currently being tested by Merck. It is a vaccine, intended to induce the body’s own immune system to identify and kill existing cancer cells by attacking an important molecule like a peptide or a protein crucial to the cancer’s survival. Stimuvax stimulates the immune system to attack a molecule called MUC1, which is abundant in lung cancer cells. Cancer vaccines are still a relatively new type of treatment and are currently only available in clinical trials.
In a study published in May 2009, extended follow-up safety data from a randomized Phase IIb study of patients with inoperable advanced (stage IIIb/IV) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have shown that the most common treatment-related adverse events observed in patients treated for up to 8.2 years with the investigational therapeutic cancer vaccine Stimuvax (BLP25 liposome vaccine) were mild injection site reactions and nausea, supporting investigation in Phase III clinical studies.
Go to: 10 ways to improve your chemotherapy success and reduce side-effects
Other articles that you may find interesting are:
- A diet for Chemotherapy
- Immunotherapy overview
- A to Z Guide to Complementary Therapies
Go to: Return to the CANCERactive drug list