(iVillage Total Health) - Individuals who have undergone surgery for pancreatic cancer may benefit from a new form of treatment. Researchers have developed a customized vaccine that may add six or seven months to the lives of some patients.
The findings of the study were presented by Dr. Daniel Laheru of Johns Hopkins University at the 2007 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. The information was released in subsequent press release.
Among the 60 patients who received the vaccine, 88 percent were alive after one year and 76 percent survived two years. In comparison, 63 percent of the patients who received surgery alone and no vaccine were alive in one year. The two-year survival rate for surgery-only patients was 42 percent.
"Our initial review suggests that the vaccine could provide additional benefit over chemoradiotherapy, but prospective randomized trials are needed to confirm this observation," Laheru said in a press release.
Researchers developed the vaccine by extracting cells from patients' tumors and treating them with radiation. The cells are then genetically engineered and placed back into the patient's body. The vaccine boosts the immune system to seek and destroy cancer cells.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. There will be more than 37,000 new cases diagnosed in the United States in 2007 and the disease will cause about 33,000 deaths.
The vaccine was part of a phase II clinical trial. Johns Hopkins researchers predict that phase III studies of the vaccine could begin late in 2007.
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