Hope for ovarian cancer vaccine

The vaccine is designed to enhance the body's own immune response to the cancer, said the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, based in Buffalo, New York.
Most patients with advanced disease respond to chemotherapy, but more than 70% die from a recurrence of the cancer within five years of diagnosis.
Cancer Research UK welcomed the study but said further trials were needed.

Details of the study appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
We are confident that the vaccine will eventually be widely available
Professor Kunle Odunsi
The vaccine contains an ovarian cancer protein fragment coupled with a molecule known to induce immune response.
It targets a protein produced in a high proportion of ovarian cancer cells, but not in healthy cells.
The researchers tested it in women with epithelial ovarian cancer, a cancer type that originates in the covering of the ovaries.
They said although their study was designed as a phase one clinical trial - a preliminary study - it had produced "encouraging" results.

Dual effect
The vaccine induced the immune system to produce antibodies, and to mobilise specialised T cells which were able to target cancer cells producing the key protein.
The researchers detected vaccine-induced immune cells in patients up to 12 months after immunisation, suggesting a long-lasting effect.
Lead researcher Professor Kunle Odunsi said: "There is now compelling evidence that the immune system has the capacity to recognise and kill ovarian cancer cells.
"Our vaccine strategy is simply taking advantage of this knowledge in an effort to improve the outcome for ovarian cancer patients.
"We are confident that the vaccine will eventually be widely available."
Dr Alison Ross, of the charity Cancer Research UK, said: "We welcome any research that could lead to improved survival for people with ovarian cancer, and cancer vaccines have exciting potential.
"This early trial shows encouraging results but it's important to remember that much larger studies will be needed before we know for sure whether the vaccine is safe and effective.

Ginger 'may fight ovarian cancer'

University of Michigan researchers announced at the American Association of Cancer Research that tests show ginger kills cancer cells.
The study also found that the spice had the added benefit of stopping the cells from becoming resistant to treatment.

But UK cancer experts said that, while ginger may in the future form a basis of a new drug, more research was needed to corroborate the findings.
Ginger is already known to ease nausea and control inflammation, but the findings by the US team offer cancer patients new hope.

Researchers used ginger powder, similar to that sold in shops, which they dissolved in a solution and applied to ovarian cancer cells.
They found it caused the cells to die in all the tests done.
But it was the way in which the cells died which offered even more hope. The tests demonstrated two types of death - apoptosis, which is essentially cell suicide, and autophagy, a kind of self-digestion.

Report author Rebecca Liu said: "Most ovarian cancer patients develop recurrent disease that eventually becomes resistant to standard chemotherapy, which is associated with apoptosis.
"If ginger can cause autophagic cell death in addition to apoptosis, it may circumvent resistance to conventional chemotherapy."

The researchers warned the results were very preliminary and they plan to test whether they can obtain similar results in animal studies.

Side-effects

But they added the appeal of ginger was that it would have virtually no side-effects and would be easy to administer as a capsule.
Henry Scowcroft, science information officer for Cancer Research UK, said previous research had shown that ginger extract can stop cancer cell growing so it was possible that ginger could form the basis of a new drug.

But more work was needed before firm conclusions could be drawn, he added.
"This study doesn't mean that people should dash down to the supermarket and stockpile ginger.

"We still don't know whether ginger, in any form, can prevent or treat cancers in animals or people."