Vaccines may be next big advance in cancer treatment

foreign as he fights lung cancer Todd Piper has a lot of doctor appointments but this visit is unique he may be getting a cancer vaccine bottom line is I have nothing to lose and and everything to gain either for me or for other people down the road Piper is participating in a trial to test a vaccine that could shrink lung cancer tumors I know they've come so far with just the treatments and the infusions yeah I'm glad to be a part of it volunteers like Piper are helping with a new wave of cancer vaccine research I I think this is going to be the decade of vaccines at UW medicine's cancer vaccine Institute researchers are testing vaccines to help treat early and Advanced Breast Cancer lung cancer and ovarian cancer I am pretty confident that in the next five to eight years we will have approval of more than one cancer vaccine to be used in that area of preventing disease recurrence more than ever scientists understand how cancer hides from the body's immune system experimental vaccines are designed to train the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells combined with standard treatments like chemotherapy radiation or immunotherapy the goal is for the vaccine to finish the job patients do very well you can get a short course of vaccines and they last a lifetime The Next Step will be developing vaccines that prevent cancer trials are already underway cancer vaccine research can't be done without volunteers like Piper or Jamie craze craze was one of the first to receive the ovarian cancer vaccine she had been diagnosed at age 34 and thought she would die young before a major surgery she and her husband wrote their Wills we were designating all the things that were important to us where they would go which is something like super weird to think about it I was like I really want my necklace to go to my best friend she's been my best friend since fourth grade it's just she's my person now 50 she still wears the necklace and has had no signs of cancer for years she joined the cancer vaccine study even after doctors found no evidence of the disease in hopes of helping future cancer patients if this could become something that they could give women before they get cancer why wouldn't I or even give it right after women are diagnosed if it could boost their immunity to like help fight the cancer why wouldn't I be a part of that um I'm still here I can still I can still help in some way that's kind of maybe what I I can't have kids so maybe I can that's what I leave instead back at the Seattle Hospital Piper receives two shots he is either getting the trial vaccine or an infection fighting protein used for comparison Piper is grateful to be here he was initially given just weeks to live after doctors discovered cancer had spread to his brain my daughter will graduate nursing school as a BSN a year from now so that would be great I'd love to love this make that you know without the injection Claire Rush Associated Press

Channel: Associated Press

Views: 7,959

Keywords: 4441564, 90a998635dae4f23aa7ae4857e0e7054, Associated Press, Jamie Crase, Nora Disis, Seattle, Todd Pieper, US MED Cancer Vaccines (CR), feab753e210b4468925734a2936956dd, news, cancer vaccine, cancer vaccines, mrna vaccine technology

Id: FLjXDUI-pHI

Length: 3min 48sec (228 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 26 2023