If you have been through the horrors of being diagnosed with cancer, these are most probably the last words you want to hear. Understandably, if you have a tumor growing inside of you, all you want to do is get rid of if. Usually, the first line of treatment is to remove the tumor. In fact, removing a tumor may be the key to successful cancer therapy.
We are all familiar with oncologists performing a biopsy. Either, a small sample is extracted from a tumor through a needle biopsy, or the tumor may be removed and is “sent in’ for analysis. Why is that? Tumors contain valuable information that is helpful in choosing the right combination of drugs to use for treatment.
What many do not know is that a tumor contains much more than just information about tissue type and receptors. Tumors contain the raw material to make an individualized tumor vaccine- An effective supportive immunotherapy.
Immunotherapy and Cancer
Immunotherapy is also sometimes referred to as biologic therapy. In recent years, there has been a big shift towards using immunotherapies in the treatment of many forms of cancer. This treatment boosts or sensitizes the body’s immune system to fight cancer. The therapeutic drug is produced using substances from the body or from substances made in a laboratory. Either way, the goal is to improve or repair the immune system function and turn it against cancer.
Immunotherapy is thought to work by activating the immune cells to stop or slow the growth of cancer cells, stop cancer cells spreading to other parts of the body and by directly destroying cancer cells.
There are several types of immunotherapy, including:
- Monoclonal antibodies and tumor-agnostic therapies
- Non-specific immunotherapies
- Oncolytic virus therapy
- T-cell therapy
- Peptide vaccines
- Cancer vaccines
The most individualized form of immunotherapy is the use of cancer vaccines. For this, it is important to have tumor material from which to produce the vaccine.
Tumor Vaccines
In order to produce an individualized tumor vaccine, tumor material or cells are needed. In the laboratory, the tumor sample is broken down and very specific antigen (substances which trigger the immune system) are extracted. These antigens can be used as a vaccine.
We are familiar with vaccines that protect us from diseases such as measles and polio. Typically a vaccine contains proteins from the bacteria or virus. Administering the vaccine exposes the immune system to these proteins and stimulates the killer cells to attack anything things containing that protein, thus attacking the invading microbes.
Tumor vaccines function in the same way. Proteins extracted from the tumor are presented to the immune system. This trains the immune cells to recognize and destroy cells containing the same proteins. This kind of therapy is useful for patients with widespread metastasis and to prevent the spread of cancer.
Tumor vaccines can also be used to produce dendritic cell vaccines. in this case, specific immune cells called dendritic cells, are extracted from a blood sample. in the laboratory, these cells are multiplied and exposed to the tumor antigen. These active dendritic cells are then injected as an advanced form of immunotherapy. In cases where no tumor material is available, specific cancer cells can also be extracted from the blood and be used to train dendritic cells.
Tumor vaccines are typically administered in a series. This may be consist of weekly subcutaneous injection over a twelve-week period. Many patients are able to administer the injection themselves.
Tumor Vaccines at EVO
In cooperation with our partners in Europe, EVO is able to offer this service. If you have cancer, you may benefit from a tumor vaccine. Please contact us at www.evobeverlyhills.com
