Vaccines are medicines that help the body fight disease. They can train the immune system to find and destroy harmful cells and germs. There are many vaccinations that you receive throughout your life to prevent common illnesses. There are also vaccines against cancer. There are vaccines that prevent cancer and vaccines that treat cancer.
Are there vaccines that prevent cancer?
There are vaccines that can prevent healthy people from getting certain types of cancer caused by viruses. Like chickenpox or flu vaccines, these vaccines protect the body from these viruses. This type of vaccine will only work if a person receives the vaccine before becoming infected with the virus.
There are 2 types of vaccines approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prevent cancer:
HPV vaccine. The vaccine provides protection against the human papillomavirus (HPV). If this virus stays in the body for a long time, it can cause some types of cancer. The FDA has approved HPV vaccines to prevent the following:
- Cervical, vaginal, and vulvar cancer.
- Anal cancer.
- Genital warts.
HPV can also cause other cancers for which the FDA has not approved vaccines, such as oral cancer.
Hepatitis B vaccine. This vaccine provides protection against the hepatitis B virus (HBV). This virus can cause liver cancer.
Are there vaccines that treat cancer?There are vaccines that treat existing cancer, called treatment vaccines or therapeutic vaccines. These vaccines are a type of cancer treatment called immunotherapy. They work by stimulating the body’s immune system to fight cancer. Doctors give treatment shots to people who already have cancer. The various treatment vaccines work in different ways. They can do the following:
- Prevent cancer from coming back.
- Destroy cancer cells that are still in the body after finishing treatments.
- Stop a tumor from growing or spreading.
How do cancer treatment vaccines work?
Antigens, found on the surface of cells, are substances that the body believes are harmful. The immune system attacks the antigens and, in most cases, eliminates them. This leaves the immune system a “memory” that helps it fight those antigens in the future.
Cancer treatment vaccines enhance the immune system’s ability to find and destroy antigens. Cancer cells often have certain molecules called cancer-specific antigens on their surface that healthy cells do not. When a vaccine delivers these molecules to a person, the molecules act as antigens. They tell the immune system to find and kill cancer cells that have these molecules on their surface.
Some cancer vaccines are personalized. This means that they are made for one person only. This type of vaccine is made from samples of a person’s tumor that are removed during surgery. Other cancer vaccines are not personalized and target certain cancer antigens that are not specific to a particular person. Doctors give these vaccines to people whose tumors have these antigens on the surface of tumor cells. Vaccines and clinical trials
Clinical trials are key to learning more about both cancer prevention vaccines and cancer treatment vaccines. Researchers are testing vaccines for many types of cancer, including the following:
Bladder cancer. Researchers are testing how well a vaccine made from a modified human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) antigen virus works. These antigens or molecules live on the surface of some bladder cancers. The virus can teach the immune system to find and destroy these tumor cells. Researchers also want to know what works better: the standard treatment for bladder cancer or the standard treatment with a vaccine.
Brain tumors. There are many studies evaluating treatment vaccines that target certain molecules on the surface of brain tumor cells. In some, the focus is on people with newly diagnosed brain cancer. In others, in people whose cancer has come back or who have had a recurrence. Many of the studies involve children and adolescents.
breast cancer. Many studies are testing breast cancer treatment vaccines, given alone or with other treatments. Other researchers are working to get vaccines that prevent breast cancer included in clinical trials.
Cervical cancer. As explained above, the FDA has approved HPV vaccines that prevent cervical cancer. Vaccines that help treat each stage of cervical cancer continue to be researched.
Colorectal cancer. Researchers are making treatment vaccines that tell the body to attack cells with antigens thought to cause colorectal cancer. These antigens include carcinoembryonic antigen (ACE), mucin-1 (MUC1), guanylyl cyclase C, and NY-ESO-1.
Kidney cancer. Researchers are testing many cancer vaccines to treat kidney cancer. They are also testing vaccines to prevent kidney cancer from coming back in later stages.
Leukemia. There are studies looking at treatment vaccines for various types of leukemia, such as acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Some are designed to help other treatments, such as bone marrow transplantation, work better. Other vaccines made from a person’s cancer cells and other cells can help the immune system destroy cancer.
Lung cancer. Lung cancer treatment vaccines in clinical trials act on antigens.
Melanoma. Researchers are testing many melanoma vaccines, given alone or with other treatments. The killed melanoma cells and antigens in the vaccines tell the immune system to kill other melanoma cells in the body.
myeloma. There are many clinical trials studying vaccines for people with multiple myeloma who are in near remission. This means that doctors can no longer find cancer in the body and there are no symptoms. Researchers are also testing vaccines in people with myeloma or who need a bone marrow/stem cell transplant.
Pancreatic cancer. Researchers are working on many treatment vaccines designed to boost the immune system’s response to cancer cells in the pancreas. The vaccine can be given as the only treatment or together with another treatment.
Prostate cancer. As stated above, sipuleucel-T is a vaccine that doctors can use to treat people with prostate cancer that has spread. Current studies are seeking to find out if the vaccine can help people with prostate cancer at earlier stages, as has been claimed since American Society of Clinical Oncology.
