A new generation of immunotherapies is increasingly likely, with the imminent clinical trials of a vaccine developed by researchers at Nottingham Trent University’s John Van Geest Centre. Dr Stephanie McArdle, team leader, said that ’the development of a vaccine would see a new level of protection against prostate tumour growth’.
Her team found, using rodents, that a protein (Prostatic Acid Phosphatase, or PAP) can be used to trigger the immune system to reduce tumour growth and size. Prostate cancer, historically, has been very successful at avoiding the body’s immune system.
PAP has a number of portions – one PAP-114 seems to both prevent, and also reduce, prostate tumour growth.
Scientists now plan to test this result with a vaccine for humans.
While readers wait for the results, they might like to read about a natural immunotherapy agent called Gc-MAF (click here).