According to the first human study of the approach, researchers found that the vaccine could trigger an immune response in the body, which could lead to personalized vaccines that may kick start the patients' immune systems to attack the cancer.
Researchers at Stanford University and Large Scale Biology Corp. infected tobacco leaves with a virus laced with a gene from the cancer. It triggered the plants into making antibodies of the type found on the tumors of individual patients, researchers said Monday.
The process has already successfully cured cancer in mice. Ronald Levy, head of oncology at Stanford and lead author of the study, tested the vaccine on 16 patients who were recently diagnosed with follicular B-cell lymphoma, a chronic, incurable disease. More than 70 percent of the patients developed an immune response with no significant side effects, the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found.
Each year, about 16,000 people are diagnosed with follicular B-cell lymphoma, also known as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. A B-cell is type of lymphocyte or white blood cell that normally defends the body against bacteria and other types of pathogens that cause illness.
