One very deadly form of cancer is pancreatic cancer, though it isn’t very common. Globally it kills lakhs of people every year. And now there is some hope for the unfortunate victims. A new vaccine has been successfully tested on the pancreatic cancer victims and it has increased the survival rates in many.
Vaccines are typically thought of as a way of preventing disease. In cancer, however, they are used along with other therapies to fight the disease, says expert Tony Hollingsworth, PhD. All vaccines are designed to encourage the immune system to fight disease, but in the case of cancer, patients are first treated with other therapy- surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, to get rid of the bulk of the disease.These vaccines are then used to stimulate the immune system to find and destroy any cancer cells that may be remaining, with the ultimate goal of extending life. Hollingsworth is a professor and head of the Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) on Pancreatic Cancer at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. His research team is working on developing other types of pancreatic cancer vaccines.
For many the detection of pancreatic cancer means a sure death sentence. But with this innovative tool available at least there is a glimmer of hope remaining for these hapless people bound to die a premature death. If the test results are any indication to go by, the results are very positive and in some the life expectancy has been remarkably extended.
