New Study Demonstrates Personalized Cancer Vaccine Improves Disease Free Survival

The search for effective anti-cancer therapies increasingly leads medical scientists to immune-based agents like anti-vaccines, or a "personalized" approach based on a patient's unique disease status. A new study reported in the prestigious Journal of National Cancer Institute, describes a personalized vaccine that achieves promising treatment objectives by exploiting both therapeutic approaches simultaneously.

Results from an ongoing clinical trial suggest that patients with non-Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL), a cancer of the lymphatic system, can benefit from treatment with a novel anti-cancer vaccine based on the patient's specific tumor. The study results, published September 20 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, demonstrated that administration of the BiovaxID(TM) anti-cancer vaccine formulation resulted in long-lasting remission in NHL patients.

The BiovaxID vaccine is under investigation at Accentia's subsidiary, Biovest International, Inc., (based in Worchester, MA). This independent study was lead by Dr. Susana Inoges and her colleagues at the University of Navarra. located in Pamplona, Spain. Among its functions, the lymphatic system holds disease-fighting white blood cells. In lymphoma, specialized white blood cells known as lymphocytes, begin to grow out of control. Eventually, they spread to the lymph nodes and other parts of the body, forming solid tumors. Approximately 57,000 Americans will be diagnosed with NHL in 2006, with about 25,000 deaths. Like many cancers, NHL is usually not diagnosed before it has spread, at which point a cure is unlikely.