Vaccines could extend cancer patients lives

Therapeutic vaccines are one way to extent cancer patients lives. The Seattle Times recently looked at the vaccines that are in development to the patients own immune systems to fight the cancer within the body. The vaccines train white blood cells to identify cancer cells and fight against them. After researching for years, doctors are now starting to see some of these vaccines work. Provenge is one of these vaccines, and it was approved by the FDA in April. In addition to prostate cancer, researchers are working on treatments for melanoma, breast cancer and cancers of the lung, colon and pancreas. The approved vaccines work in men who have advanced prostate cancer to prologue their lives. Many patients see it as a valuable alternative to chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

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