Lung cancer is one of the most deadly forms of the disease. But there's new reason to hope from within the body. You might call it fighting fire with fire - researchers are looking into a lung cancer vaccine.
48-year-old Charlie Harb has stage four lung cancer - a tough disease to beat. So after chemo helped stabilize the tumor, he entered a study of a new vaccine, hoping to stop the tumor from growing again. "So far so good. I guess we'll find out at the, in two months, the scans, if everything is stable or shrinking, then we'll continue with the vaccine," says Charlie.
The vaccine is made of lung cancer cells. But these are modified so they no longer produce a protein they use to blindfold the immune system. "The reason why you develop lung cancer, or cancer in general, is because your immune system failed to recognize that cancer. So we need to change it. We need to re-teach the immune system to do their job," says Dr. Lyudmila Bazhenova.
The new therapy is now in its final testing phase. "The drug already passed phase 1 and phase 2 investigations and now they're moving it into the phase 3, to get an absolute final proof of its efficacy," according to Dr. Bazhenova.
The findings up to now show that patients who receive the vaccine, called Lucanix, live longer than patients who receive a placebo. Side effects include pain and redness at the injection site. No big deal to patients like charlie. "Compared to the side effects of the chemotherapy and the infusions and the treatments and so on, it's very hopeful," says Charlie.
The vaccine is designed to treat non-small cell lung cancer.
