Every year, globally, more than 300,000 new cases of melanoma are detected. Only in Spain, the figure reaches 6,200. Find a cancer vaccine, any type, is one of the objectives most pursued by current science. One of the biggest obstacles to achieving this is that we are not dealing with a virus or bacteria that affects everyone, but rather a type of cell that has mutated and generates a practically unique reaction in each person.

Now, a team of scientists from Harvard University, led by Patrick Ott, has taken a giant leap according to a study published in Nature. According to the results, the vaccine designed by Ott’s team has been able to induce an immune response against melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

The study was based on eight volunteers who had had melanoma surgically, but still had a high risk of recurrence.

All eight were injected with experimental vaccine called NeoVax and the study authors found a vaccine-induced immune response in all patients, a response that could “persist for years,” according to the results.

Basically, the vaccine causes the immune system to create antitumor T cells that are specific to each tumor and patient. T cells are an important type of white blood cell that help the immune system develop long-lasting immune responses against inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

“In oncology, when we find a mutation and then we use targeted therapy, we often say it’s a personalized approach.”, says Ott in an interview with the official publication of the university, the Harvard Gazette. “Some of the mutations that we found are shared between groups of patients, but they are actually the exception. These are truly personal in the sense that they are tailored to each individual patient. ” For now, the study is not definitive proof that personalized cancer vaccines work for everyone, but it is one avenue to explore.

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