Looks can be deceiving: The prostate-cancer vaccines being explored work by stimulating the immune system to produce antibodies. Those antibodies then attack certain proteins found on the surface of prostate cancer cells, thus disabling the cell. Preliminary results from several different types of vaccines have shown this approach will cause PSA levels to drop in many men. Research on this form of therapy is ongoing, including an effort that will combine several of the vaccines into one therapeutic regimen. …..
Yet another strategy is making use of a unique protein called Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen, or PSMA. MSK researchers discovered that this protein is commonly found in prostate cancer cells, making it a potential target for therapy. Currently, they are exploring ways to trigger the immune system to destroy cells that contain PSMA and are also trying to develop viruses that can infect and kill only cells that contain PSMA. They are also exploring a hypothesis that PSMA might be partially responsible for the high rates of prostate cancer seen in populations that have poor nutrition. PSMA, it seems, may be putting prostate cells at risk for becoming deficient in the nutrient folate, and folate-deficient cells, scientists know, are at high risk for developing cancer.
PSMA may eventually prove to be a target for therapy for many different kinds of cancer, as well. MSKCC researchers discovered that the protein is also found in blood vessels associated with many different types of solid tumors, including melanomas and sarcomas and tumors of the breast, lung, colon, pancreas, kidney, bladder, and brain. If an effective therapy is found for prostate cancers that contain PSMA, the therapy might also work for those other cancers.
mskcc.org
It appears to me that the referenced MSNBC link, while interesting in of itself, is not related to CYTO. The first snipet above seems to describe the Prostate treatments in your link. Further down, the specific reference to PSMA is, are we all know, directly what CYTO has in its bag of tricks. Thanks for the info.
Jim |
