Embryonic Stem Cell-Based Vaccines Prevent Lung Cancer in Mice
Written by Staff/Wire   
Monday, 13 November 2006
Researchers in the United States have discovered that vaccinating mice with embryonic stem cells prevents lung cancer in previously cancer-infected mice. Researchers believe that it will be possible to produce cancer vaccines in humans from embryonic stem cells.

Professor John Eaton who is the Deputy Director of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center at the University of Louisville, while speaking at a cancer treatment symposium in Prague explained that the research into the vaccines produced an 80-100 per cent success rate in the prevention of tumour growth in the mice who had been previously infected with lung cancer. Eaton continued, "Our results raise the exciting possibility of developing a prophylactic vaccine capable of preventing the appearance of various types of cancers in humans, especially those with hereditary, chronological or environmental predispositions to neoplastic disease."

Eaton cautioned that reasearch was still in the early stages saying, "I consider it quite likely that, by the time this is tried in humans, I will be pushing up daisies."  He also warned that further research will depend largely on funding for the project. He added that the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) have so far shown no interest in the research program.

The research will not be limited to vaccines for lung cancer. There is evidence that vaccines produced from embryonic stem cells will also lead to vaccinations against certain breast cancers as well as cancers of the skin and colon.