Abstract from: interactive.wsj.com
...
Vaccines are also being used in the war on cancer, not to inoculate against the
disease -- though that remains a long-term goal -- but as treatment. The basic
idea grew out of the fact that, except in some pretty rare cases, the body's
immune system does not eliminate cancer as it does other diseases. As such,
researchers used to think there was no immune response at all. We now
know that's not true, but the immune response usually is too weak to do the
job. So vaccines are being used to supercharge ordinary white blood cells to
take on cancer and win. In one method, vaccines are tailor-made by taking
tumor cells and altering them to produce unique proteins that can serve as
markers, attaching themselves to the cancer cell and effectively waving a red
flag that says "Come and kill me."
B. Michael Longenecker, co-founder of Edmonton, Alberta-based Biomira,
pioneered the development of vaccines in the mid-1980s. At least eight other
companies, including Antigenics, AVAX Technologies and AVI BioPharma,
are now exploring this approach. "Theoretically the idea of using vaccines to
stimulate the immune system to attack all and any cancer is very possible,"
says Biomira Chief Executive Dr. Alex McPherson. "I think it has huge
promise."
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