New research suggests that the body's own immune system may be one of the most effective tools against cancer. Therapeutic cancer vaccines that boost the immune response and target existing tumors are showing significant promise, with medical professionals describing the immune system as the most intelligent and powerful cancer-killing machine in the human body.
Terry Palastro has lived that promise firsthand. She was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer in 2003, when her daughters were three and seven years old. She says she would sing to them at night because she wanted them to remember her voice in case she did not survive. She credits a cancer vaccine with helping save her life, and she was able to watch her oldest daughter get married last year.
These vaccines are given to patients already diagnosed with cancer or to those at high risk of developing the disease. They teach the immune system to find and kill existing tumors, a concept that was once considered the stuff of science fiction. Medical professionals say it is now becoming a reality.
Despite the results, access in the United States remains limited. The vaccines are currently only available at a handful of American hospitals. The US is falling behind countries including Germany and Russia in cancer vaccine research and clinical development, leaving many patients without a domestic option.
The access gap is wide enough that some patients are already traveling to Mexico to receive a Chinese-made cancer vaccine that is not yet available in the United States. For those patients, crossing the border is the only path to a treatment they believe could extend their lives.
The National Cancer Vaccine Roadmap is intended to change that picture. It is aimed at increasing access to the emerging medicine nationwide and tracking the milestones reached by patients who receive the treatment. The long-term vision, as those involved in the effort describe it, is to unlock cancer vaccine access across the country.
The urgency is underscored by the scale of the disease. About one in three Americans will face cancer in their lifetime, and over the next twenty-five years that figure is expected to increase by approximately fifty percent.