Lung-Cancer.Com: Researchers Discover Potential Lung Cancer Vaccine
Lung-Cancer.Com is an important information source for patients with mesothelioma, a variety of cancer that attacks the soft tissue around the lungs. The site also serves as a news outlet for research on other lung diseases that arise from exposure to the carcinogenic mineral asbestos. Lung-Cancer.com offers updates on the most recent work in the battle against mesothelioma and other different asbestos-induced diseases.
A research team at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center has come up with a revolutionary treatment method certain types of lung cancer: vaccination. The experimental process has revealed a component of a lung cancer vaccine. The vaccination exposes the body's immune system to a protein manufactured by lung cancer cells. The production of this protein allows the body to build up a form of immunity against the malignant cells assaulting the lungs.
Scientists have been examining the idea of using the body’s immune system to battle cancer for years. Dr. Nasser Altorki, one of the leaders of the research team, told a New York reporter that the breakthrough the team experienced was “huge”. “I cannot tell you how important (it) is,” he said. He also remarked that the experiments the researchers conducted “proves the concept of engaging the immune system in the fight against cancer”.
Statistics have shown that lung cancer is the number-one form of fatal cancer worldwide. Lung cancer also can reoccur in patients who survive the initial rounds of treatment. Dr. Altorki and his research team have high hopes that, if the vaccine is proven effective, millions of future lung cancer deaths can be prevented. The vaccine may also be able to keep the lung cancer from reoccurring in patients, as it uses the body’s own disease-fighting mechanisms in much the same way as polio or smallpox vaccines.
The vaccine study is still ongoing, as the New York research team continues to add patients to the pool of experimental test subjects. Another four hundred research centers across the globe are also participating in the study. The plan calls for doctors administer doses of the vaccine over the course of two years to each test subject.
Carol Terry, a lung cancer patient, is one of the subjects of the vaccine study. As a smoker for forty-five years, she developed stage-two lung cancer. Ms. Terry had what she described as “an extremely large tumor” in one of her lungs, which was surgically removed. She also underwent four bouts of chemotherapy to reduce and control the remaining malignancy.
Patients in the vaccine reportedly exhibit fewer side effects than those undergoing chemotherapy or radiation treatments. Dr. Altorki calls the results “a game changer” that “changes completely the way we treat lung cancer.”
Lung-Cancer.com is a reference source on many aspects of lung cancer, including its progression, its origins and up-to-date treatment processes. The higher incidence of mesothelioma noted in recent years is a leading grounds for worry for doctors and healthcare industry workers. Incidence rates for the disease are expected to reach much higher levels by the year 2030.
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