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Mayo Clinic Minute: How personalized vaccines target cancer tumors
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Vaccines are helpful in protecting against the flu and COVID-19, but could they also play a role in the fight against cancer? Imagine a future where every cancer treatment is personalized to each patient, precisely targeting their unique cancer cells.
Dr. Keith Knutson, a cancer vaccine researcher at Mayo Clinic, explains how the development of personalized lung cancer vaccines is giving hope to patients.
Journalists: Broadcast-quality video pkg (:58) is in the downloads at the end of the post. Please courtesy: "Mayo Clinic News Network." Read the script.
It may sound like something out of a science fiction movie, but it is reality. Mayo Clinic researchers are developing personalized lung cancer vaccines.
"We actually make a vaccine that's specific for each individual's cancers," says Dr. Knutson.
The process involves analyzing cancer cells to create a one-of-a-kind vaccine.
"We can take a small part of that cancer and sequence that cancer and get the information that we need to design the vaccine," he explains.
The vaccine uses the immune system to identify and combat cancer.
"We can use that vaccine to hopefully prevent the disease from coming back, or we can use it to help shrink a tumor when given with other types of therapies," Dr. Knutson says.
You can reduce your risk of lung cancer by quitting smoking and avoiding exposure to secondhand smoke.
Read more about Dr. Knutson's work on the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center blog.
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