Let's check on dogs
For 12 years at Arizona State University, Dr. Johnston and his colleagues have been developing a cancer vaccine that can finally be tested on animals.
Every year, 6 million new cases of cancer are diagnosed in dogs, on average, every third dog dies from cancer. For humans, the problem is no less urgent, and if the developed vaccine is effective for dogs, it will most likely help people as well.
The study will involve more than 800 healthy dogs from 6 to 10 years old, who are randomly vaccinated or given a placebo (dog owners and scientists do not know which dogs will receive vaccines). Two sets of vaccines will be administered every two weeks for four courses of treatment, and then once a year. There are no side effects of the vaccine, except for the typical painful sensations or swelling at the injection site.
The experimental dogs will live at home and be tested two to three times a year for five years. At the end of the study, the results of both groups will be evaluated for the effectiveness of the vaccine and the course of cancer. This is the largest preclinical study on canine cancer. It is expected that in animals receiving placebo, oncological diseases will develop at the usual rate.
How the vaccine works
Many scientists specializing in oncological diseases are skeptical about this method of treatment, since it is believed that tumors are individual for each person. Cancer vaccines have been developed targeting common DNA mutations, but all tumors have different DNA specific to each individual, which makes it impossible to create a vaccine against all unique mutations.
However, in the RNA of cancer tumors – chains of cells that use information from DNA to create proteins in the body – there are mutations that are common in different types of cancer in both dogs and humans.
If a dog has any cancer, then there is a 95% chance that the tumor will contain about 50% of abnormal proteins. Such proteins are the result of incorrectly encoded RNA (mutations with a shift in the reading frame). The tested antitumor vaccine consists of 30 abnormal proteins present in various types of tumors, together with a substance that stimulates the immune response. Theoretically, the vaccine will train the dogs' immune system to recognize cancer cells before they are detected by MRI. A course of injections should be enough so that when a disease occurs, the immune system's memory of abnormal proteins becomes activated and destroys cancer cells regardless of their origin.
Scientists have some concern that the vaccine will not trigger a strong enough immune response to find cancer cells as quickly as possible. If the immune system does not react quickly enough, cancerous tumors will begin to disguise themselves as healthy cells. But, fortunately, even if the vaccine does not prevent the growth of the primary tumor, it will at least help prevent the spread of metastases, from which most cancer patients eventually die.
If the study is successful, then a vaccine applicable to humans will be created with the help of special technology, but even according to the most optimistic forecasts, this will not happen earlier than in 5-10 years.
Today, there are already cancer vaccines on the market for people who are designed to treat a certain type of disease. And the cost of such vaccines can exceed $ 100,000. The new vaccine will be much cheaper, which will make it available to many people, even from disadvantaged areas.
Elena Panasyuk, portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru / based on the materials of Arizona State University World's largest canine cancer vaccine trial begins