Cancer is a devastating disease that affects millions of people all over the world. Thankfully, however, according to new studies done by the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem, there is hope that the cure for cancer will be available in a very near future.
A new cancer vaccine is being tested on humans for the first time; the vaccine is designed to target a molecule present in 90 percent of all existing cancers and it is being called InMucin.
So far in a safety trial with patients with blood cancer, they found that all the patients had a higher immunity to the disease after taking the vaccine. Three of the seven people that completed the trial are actually now free of the condition.
The researchers of this groundbreaking vaccine believe they can get these same kinds of results with almost all cancers.
There is a big difference in this vaccine in that it is more therapeutic than it is preventative. Rather than attacking and killing the cancer cells, which comprises the immune system, the vaccine focuses on a protein name MUC1 that is made in larger amounts in cancer cells as opposed to healthy ones.
The sugar molecule that attaches itself to this protein is shaped very distinctly and what the vaccine searches for and identifies the sugar shape and begins to attack it.
Chemotherapy and many other cancer treatments have a reputation of having horrible, life altering side effects, but patients who were tested with InMucin reported mild irritation as the only side effect.
This is a grand difference from hair loss, nausea, and all the other effects that come from trying to get rid of cancer.
Before InMucin can be put into widespread use and be present in hospitals, large-scale human trials must happen to deem the drug safe and effective. If all goes well in the large trials, though, the drug can be on the market as soon as the year 2020.
The idea of there being a treatment like this out there for cancer that is this effective and groundbreaking is incredible. Reportedly 1.6 million cancer cases will be diagnosed this year in the U.S. alone. On top of this, there will be over 500,000 cancer related deaths.
With so many people being affected by the disease, this drug can revolutionize the way we treat cancer. Not only would it change that, but it could also pioneer the research for cures of other fatal diseases.
Hopefully this new research isn’t too good to be true because so many lives could be saved and the amount of positive change that it would bring about to people’s lives would be insurmountable.
Rebecca Ruiz is a senior business major and a contributing writer for the Daily 49er.
