Cancer Vaccine?

I'll reproduce the article that prompted this post in full, as it's not very long.

Stem cells which train the body to attack tumours could be the key to a breakthrough cancer vaccine. Researchers in California found the induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) build an immune response to the disease in mice because of their remarkable similarity to cancer cells. The iPS could in the future be injected into humans to prevent the development of cancers – possibly for years after vaccination. They are made using samples from skin or blood, which are reprogrammed to mimic embryonic stem cells – meaning they can develop into any type of cell in the body. In a study, scientists tested the iPS cells on groups of mice with artificially induced breast cancer, injecting them once a week for four weeks. Within four weeks, breast cancer tumours were rejected by 70 per cent of the injected mice, while 30 per cent had significantly smaller tumours. Dr Joseph Wu, of Stanford Medical School, said: “Although much research remains to be done, the concept is pretty simple. “We would take your blood, make iPS cells and then inject the cells to prevent future cancers. “I’m very excited about the future possibilities.”

At first I thought that this was just another vaccine to be added to the growing list of what humans presumably need to stay healthy. However, it seems less a vaccine and more a series of medical procedures, so it may prove more of a boon to the medical mafia than to the drug companies, although they'll be looking for a way to profit from it if they can. Certainly if the procedure proves effective, then most of drugs used to treat cancer would become obsolete. The procedures wouldn't come cheap: blood must be taken, iPS cells manufactured and then injected. The procedure has the merit of using the body's own cells and so is very different from your usual vaccine.

It will be interesting to see what comes of it but it has the potential to be very disruptive to the way the cancer industry currently operates. The new procedure may well be shut down if it proves successful but less lucrative than current approaches. The medical mafia has no interest in curing cancer cheaply, even though many researchers (perhaps Dr Joseph Wu included) may be genuinely striving toward this goal. Meanwhile, many more rodents and other animals will suffer as the studies continue toward the human guinea pig stage.