Researchers at University of Louisville develop a probable vaccine for lung cancer

Two researchers at University of Louisville have developed a vaccine, which they believe could be used to prevent lung cancer and other forms of cancer in humans, in future. The vaccine has been successfully tested on mice in preventing lung cancer. The findings of this research will be presented at the International Cancer Conference at Prague, Czech Republic, later today, by one of its researchers, John W. Eaton. Lung Cancer is the most lethal form of cancer, which kills over 3 million people worldwide, every year. The survival rate among lung cancer patients is very low, with only one in ten patients expected to survive the next five years. Smoking is considered to be the largest risk factor of lung cancer and almost 40% of smokers develop this disease in their lifetime.
John W. Eaton, deputy director of University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer centre, said that the results of this vaccine in mice were promising, but more research is required if this vaccine is to be used on humans for preventing cancer. Eaton and his colleague Robert Mitchell, who were involved in this research, said that they were excited with the early results of the work, which involves injecting adult mice with mouse embryonic stem cells, isolated from a fertilized mouse embryo. The immune system of the mice recognizes these stem cells as foreign bodies and develops a immune response, which could prevent the growth of tumors.

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