Cancer Vaccines Explained
In very simple terms, because cancer cells are produced from our own cells the immune system often has difficulty in recognising them as abnormal and harmful and does not respond to fight and destroy them. Cancer vaccines aim to stimulate the patient’s immune system to recognise and fight these harmful cells. They are made by taking cancerous cells either from the patient or from somebody else’s grown in the laboratory. These cells are then grown, made safe and manipulated so that when they are re-introduced into the body as a vaccine, the immune system is now able to recognise them as abnormal and can respond to destroy them. Sometimes other components can be added to the vaccine such as drugs known to boost the immune system or a patient’s dendritic cells which are known to be especially efficient at stimulating an immune response. CVI’s research is focused on developing the best method of manipulating the cells and finding the most effective elements to add to the vaccine to generate the best possible immune response.
A more detailed explanation is available in our Research section.
