MEDICINE / CANCER RESEARCH : Melanoma Vaccine Reduces Recurrence, Scientists Claim

Researchers using the diseased cells of melanoma patients have developed a vaccine that they say dramatically reduces the recurrence of the deadliest form of skin cancer.

The researchers used the vaccine on high-risk patients with advanced melanoma. Even after surgery, most patients develop additional tumors and die.

Dr. David Berd of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia said his team treated the patients with a vaccine made from their own cancer cells and another chemical to stimulate the immune system.

After three years, 70% of those vaccinated remained cancer-free, compared to 20% in patients treated with surgery alone, Berd told the American Assn. of Cancer Research on Monday.

The three-year study at Jefferson involved 47 patients who had malignant melanoma that had spread to regional lymph nodes. They underwent surgery to remove the tumors, but such treatments usually fail because cancer cells remain in the body.

Along with the surgery, the researchers gave the patients a vaccine formed from their own cancer cells, which were inactivated and coupled with the chemical dinitrophenyl, or DNP. The patients also were given cyclophosphamide, a commonly used treatment that boosts the immune response.

After three years, 60% of the vaccinated patients were tumor-free. Ten percent suffered a recurrence of tumors, but have remained disease-free since the additional tumors were removed.

Berd said anti-melanoma immunizations for high-risk patients could be available within five years if scientists can synthesize the vaccine. “There is no reason why it’s not applicable to other cancers,” Berd said. “A great deal of this work has been concentrated in melanoma merely for tradition.”

Cases of the advanced form of melanoma represent a small fraction of the disease, which is diagnosed in 32,000 Americans annually.

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