Imagine having several severe headaches each day. These headaches can occasionally even feel like a pin or knife being stabbed into your head, and you are helpless to stop it. What would you think?
Unfortunately, many brain cancer patients live with that kind of suffering daily. There are millions of these people all across the world, and they are all in need of a vaccination that may end their suffering and help them get well again. This is why researchers are working nonstop to create a vaccination that can effectively prevent brain tumors.
Today, we’ll discuss a recently released research paper that highlights a dual-action vaccine for brain cancer. It was created by a group of researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Harvard Medical School (BWH).
The fact that the team’s vaccination was successfully tested on an animal model of glioblastoma, one of the most dangerous brain cancers, is encouraging. The experiment’s outcomes looked promising.
Although there is ongoing research into cancer vaccines, the strategy suggested in the latest research is quite different. The researchers at BWH gene-edited and engineered (repurposed) living tumor cells rather than using inactivated tumor cells.
Therapeutic tumor cells are sometimes delivered to a subject again after being inactivated by lysis or radiation to increase immunogenicity (immunity resulting due to the action of a foreign substance). According to the experts, there have been few or no health advantages to using this treatment method to treat brain cancer throughout clinical trials.