KEEP AWAY PROSTATE CANCER
Each year 200,000 men in the United States are diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 10% of those will die. While treatments often take care of the cancer, the cure can be temporary, and recurrence is a risk. Now, doctors may have found a way to prevent it from coming back by taking advantage of the patient's own body.
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Larry Kimmerling feels pretty healthy.
Larry Kimmerling
"Being physically fit and taking care of ourselves is an obligation to our families and to ourselves."
But last year, during a routine exam, Larry found out he has prostate cancer.
Larry Kimmerling
Has prostate cancer
"Oh my gosh, how can this be. Not me. I feel good, and I had no symptoms or anything like that."
To make matters worse, Larry was at high-risk for the cancer coming back after treatment. That's when he decided to take part in a new clinical trial.
Mayer Fishman, M.D., Ph.D.
Oncologist
Moffitt Cancer Center
Tampa, FL
"A general problem with cancers is if a person has cancer, the cancer has outwitted the immune system at that point."
Doctor Mayer Fishman's new research focuses on this vaccine. Before radiation, dendritic cells are taken from a patient's blood. After radiation, those cells are injected into the tumor where they go to work.
Mayer Fishman, M.D., Ph.D.
"The immune system just has to get rid of those last few cells, and the patient will be converted from 'once destined to reoccur' to 'never reoccurring.'"
Dendritic cells help ensure those last few cells are killed by telling the fighter cells to finish the job.
Blood tests show the cells are reacting in Larry, but it will take years of waiting to see if his cancer stays away.
Barb Kimmerling
Larry's Wife
"He was a real trooper going through all the things he had to go through."
Larry's cancer is in remission, but the real celebration will come if the cancer doesn't come back.
Larry is the first person to receive this vaccine. Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center are currently recruiting more patients. This type of treatment is also being tested in kidney cancer.
PROSTATE CANCER: Each year in the United States, 200,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer, and 30,000 will die from the disease. While some patients have locally confined cancer, they may still be at high risk for the cancer to return after treatment. A new study at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., focuses on patients with prostate cancer that may be cured from standard treatment but have a higher risk for it to return. The study involves a vaccine that is designed to awaken the immune system and kill off any leftover cancer cells.
IMMUNE SYSTEM: The immune system has cells with different jobs. The job of the dendritic cells is to direct other cells on what to attack. The idea is to give patients their own dendritic cells after the undergoing standard treatments. The vaccine is injected into the tumor area, which contains many newly killed cells. The hope is that the dendritic cells will use the material from the killed cells to direct the immune system to kill any leftover cancer cells. The vaccine is made from the patient's own dendritic cells, which are taken from their blood.
PREVIOUS RESEARCH: This research is new in humans, and only a handful of patients have undergone it so far. The rationale for this study came from an animal study. In that study, four different treatments were given to mice that had leg tumors. The first group was given no treatment, and their tumors grew. The second group had radiation on the leg and the tumor shrank, but it was not cured. There were still cancer cells, so the cancer grew back. The third group had dendritic cells injected and some mice responded, but the cancer eventually grew back. In the fourth group, the mice were treated with radiation followed by the dendritic cell injection. The tumor shrank and did not grow back. Even when scientists re-injected the mice with tumor cells, the cancer did not return. Researchers say the results of the mice study suggests when dendritic cells are provided with a quantity of newly killed cancer cells, they are able to activate other cells to wipe out any remaining cancer cells and resist any further re-introduction of those tumor cells.
CURRENT TRIAL: The current research is based on the theory that taking a person's own dendritic cells and placing them into the prostate after radiation -- where there is killed cancer cells and normal prostate tissue -- will cause the person's immune system to fight the prostate cancer. Right now, this is a new approach, and only patients who will receive standard treatment with radiation plus seeds and hormone therapy are included. Researchers are also looking for patients with a specific blood test that makes it possible to test the activity in the white blood cells. Researchers hope none of the participants have a recurrence that would take years to detect. The goal of the study is to determine if the process causes activity in the blood and is safe. So far, after six injections in the first patients in the trial, there have been no safety issues.
Marla Davis
Clinical Trials Coordinator
Moffitt Cancer Center
(813) 745-1082
Copyright © 2004 Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc.
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