The cancer vaccines which are use to treat patients who already have cancer uses the principles of immunotherapy. What this means in simple language is the vaccine induces antibodies produced in the body to fight against the cancer cells. In normal vaccines like flu vaccine or chickenpox vaccine, the vaccine acts to induce antibodies to fight against the infectious viruses. In cancer vaccine, the principles are fairly similar, the vaccine induces antibodies to fight against the cancer cells instead.
You can find more information in this website : http://www.cancersupportivecare.com/immunotherapy.html
A summary of this from the website is below :
The concept of immunotherapy is based on the body's natural defense system, which protects us against a variety of diseases. Although we are less aware of it, the immune system also works to aid our recovery from many illnesses.
For many years, physicians believed that the immune system was effective only in combating infectious diseases caused by such invading agents as bacteria and viruses. More recently, we have learned that the immune system may play a central role in protecting the body against cancer and in combating cancer that has already developed. This latter role is not well understood, but there is evidence that in many cancer patients the immune system slows down the growth and spread of tumors. The body's ability to develop an immune reaction to tumors may help determine which patients are cured of cancer using conventional therapies, including surgery, radiation and drugs.
One immediate goal of research in cancer immunology is the development of methods to harness and enhance the body's natural tendency to defend itself against malignant tumors. Immunotherapy represents a new and powerful weapon in the arsenal of anticancer treatments.
Immunotherapy seems to offer great promise as a new dimension in cancer treatment, but it is still very much in its infancy. Immunotherapies involving certain cytokines and antibodies have now become part of standard cancer treatment. Other examples of immunotherapy remain experimental. Although many clinical trials of new forms of immunotherapy are in progress, an enormous amount of research remains to be done before the findings can be widely applied.
Immunotherapy of cancer began about one hundred years ago when Dr. William Coley, at the Sloan-Kettering Institute, showed that he could control the growth of come cancers and cure a few advanced cancers with injections of a mixed vaccine of streptococcal and staphylococcal bacteria known as Coley's toxin. The tuberculosis vaccine, Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), developed in 1922, is known to stimulate the immune system and is now used to treat bladder cancers.
Many years of research have finally produced the first successful examples of immunotherapies for cancer. Sometimes referred to as biological response modifiers or as biological therapies, these new treatments-such as interferons and other cytokines, monoclonal antibodies, and vaccine therapies-have generated renewed interest and research activity in immunology.
For many years, physicians believed that the immune system was effective only in combating infectious diseases caused by such invading agents as bacteria and viruses. More recently, we have learned that the immune system may play a central role in protecting the body against cancer and in combating cancer that has already developed. This latter role is not well understood, but there is evidence that in many cancer patients the immune system slows down the growth and spread of tumors. The body's ability to develop an immune reaction to tumors may help determine which patients are cured of cancer using conventional therapies, including surgery, radiation and drugs.
One immediate goal of research in cancer immunology is the development of methods to harness and enhance the body's natural tendency to defend itself against malignant tumors. Immunotherapy represents a new and powerful weapon in the arsenal of anticancer treatments.
Immunotherapy seems to offer great promise as a new dimension in cancer treatment, but it is still very much in its infancy. Immunotherapies involving certain cytokines and antibodies have now become part of standard cancer treatment. Other examples of immunotherapy remain experimental. Although many clinical trials of new forms of immunotherapy are in progress, an enormous amount of research remains to be done before the findings can be widely applied.
Immunotherapy of cancer began about one hundred years ago when Dr. William Coley, at the Sloan-Kettering Institute, showed that he could control the growth of come cancers and cure a few advanced cancers with injections of a mixed vaccine of streptococcal and staphylococcal bacteria known as Coley's toxin. The tuberculosis vaccine, Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), developed in 1922, is known to stimulate the immune system and is now used to treat bladder cancers.
Many years of research have finally produced the first successful examples of immunotherapies for cancer. Sometimes referred to as biological response modifiers or as biological therapies, these new treatments-such as interferons and other cytokines, monoclonal antibodies, and vaccine therapies-have generated renewed interest and research activity in immunology.
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