‘The therapy targets a molecule found in 90 per cent of all cancers’
A vaccine that can train cancer patients’ own bodies to seek out and destroy tumour cells has been developed by scientists.
The therapy, which targets a molecule found in 90 per cent of all cancers, could provide a universal injection that allows patients’ immune systems to fight off common cancers including breast and prostate cancer.
Results from the safety trial – on patients with blood cancer – found all had greater immunity to the disease after receiving the vaccine. Three of the seven patients who have completed the treatment are now free of the condition.
Preliminary results from early clinical trials have shown the vaccine can trigger an immune response in patients and reduce levels of disease.
The scientists behind the vaccine now hope to conduct larger trials in patients to prove it can be effective against a range of different cancers.
They believe it could be used to combat small tumours if they are detected early enough or to help prevent the return and spread of disease in patients who have undergone other forms of treatment such as surgery.
Cancer cells usually evade patient’s immune systems because they are not recognised as being a threat. While the immune system usually attacks foreign cells such as bacteria, tumours are formed of the patient’s own cells that have malfunctioned.
Scientists have, however, found that a molecule called MUC1, which is found in high amounts on the surface of cancer cells, can be used to help the immune system detect tumours.
The new vaccine, developed by drug company Vaxil Biotheraputics along with researchers at Tel Aviv University, uses a small section of the molecule to prime the immune system so that it can identify and destroy cancer cells.
A statement from Vaxil Biotheraputics said: “ImMucin generated a robust and specific immune response in all patients which was observed after only 2-4 doses of the vaccine out of a maximum of 12 doses.
“In some of the patients, preliminary signs of clinical efficacy were observed.”
The results are still to be formally published but if further trials prove to be successful the vaccine could be available within six years.
As a therapeutic vaccine it is designed to be given to patients who are already suffering from cancer to help their bodies fight off the disease rather than to prevent disease in the first place.
Cancer cells contain high levels of MUC1 as it is thought to be involved helping tumours grow. Healthy human cells also contain MUC1, but have levels that are too low to trigger the immune system after vaccination.
When a vaccinated patient’s immune system encounters cancer cells, however, the far larger concentration of MUC1 causes it to attack and kill the tumour.
As MUC1 is found in 90 per cent of all cancers, the researchers believe it could be used to combat the growth and spread of a wide range of cancers.
In a safety trial at the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem, ten patients suffering from multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, have now received the vaccine.
Seven of the patients have now finished the treatment and Vaxil reported that all of them had greater immunity against cancer cells compared to before they were given the vaccine.
Vaxil added that three patients are now free of detectable cancer following the treatment.
The findings support research published in the journal Vaccine, which showed the treatment induced “potent” immunity in mice and increased their survival from cancer.
Cancer charities have given the vaccine a cautious welcome, but warned further testing was needed before it could be approved for widespread use.
There are currently a number of other therapeutic vaccines against cancer being tested, but they have met with limited success.
Dr Kat Arney, science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “There are several groups around the world investigating treatments that target MUC1, as it’s a very interesting target involved in several types of cancer.
“These are very early results that are yet to be fully published, so there’s a lot more work to be done to prove that this particular vaccine is safe and effective in cancer patients.”
Sligo County Council seeks €290,000 funding to tackle coastal erosion damage
Sligo County Council is seeking maximum funding to deal with coastal erosion problems at Strandhill.
Coastal erosion is an issue for Co Sligo towns such as Enniscrone
Storms last year led to the partial collapse of a coastal path and about 500m of sand dunes.
A report on the damage, carried out by consultants RPS on behalf of the council, recommends remedial works that would cost €290,000, and this has been forwarded to the Office of Public Works seeking full funding.
The council says that this project is its ”highest priority in terms of coastal management and protection”.
But it added that it cannot afford to fund it given the council’s ”serious financial position”.
The work would include altering and protecting the end of the existing coastal path and revetment, which would also allow access to the beach and afford some protection to the dunes.
Locals have expressed serious concern that the erosion threatens its tourism infrastructure, including Strandhill Golf Club.
This is where the Titanic was at this time exactly 100 years ago
THIS DAY 100 years ago, the doomed Titanic liner departed Cobh (then Queenstown), Co Cork at 1.30pm.
It had started sea trials from Belfast on 2 April 1912, entered Southampton in England on 3 April, set sail at noon on 10 April to pick up more passengers at Cherbourg in France and then arrive in Cobh at 11.30am the following day. Two hours later, it left the Co Cork harbour on what was to be its longest leg – across the Atlantic. As we know, it never completed that leg, hitting an iceberg on 14 April and sinking in the early hours of 15 April 1912.
This interactive map on the Belfast Titanic museum’s new website is live-tracking the voyage progress as it would have happened 100 years ago.
As of 7.30pm on 11 April 2012, this is where the Titanic lay, making fine progress off the southwestern coast of Ireland:
The numbers paying the household levy charge in Ireland slows up
To date some 891,201 property owners registered or paid the charge, up 1,017 on yesterday
The number of property owners registering or paying the €100 household charge is slowing according to tallies from the Local Government Management Agency.
Figures from the agency put the number of households paying to just over 1,000 per day since the March 31st deadline.
To date some 891,201 property owners registered or paid the charge, up 1,017 on yesterday.
The figure includes 152,500 postal applications yet to be processed, 73,000 made to local authority offices, and 14,525 applications for a waiver. Nearly 651,176 properties were registered online.
More than 11,000 of those payments were made after the March 31st deadline and incurred penalties of €10 plus €1 in interest.
With the rate of payment of the charge at about 50 per cent local authorities are facing an unprecedented gap in funding.
The charge is intended to replace the exchequer element of the Local Government Fund, set up in 1999 as one of the funding sources from central government to local government. In 2011 exchequer funding was €164 million; in 2012 this was to be replaced by the household charge to the tune of €161 million.
However, while local authorities could rely on their allocation of the €164 million, the same will not be true of the household charge.
Last week Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan suggested he would “incentivise” local authorities that “pull out all the stops” to collect the charge by giving them a greater allocation of the money generated. However, no matter what success rate is ultimately achieved, unless 100 per cent of the charge is collected, local authorities will face a gap in their funding.
Dementia cases to treble by 2050 & put new pressure’s on the Worlds public health system
Global strides in healthcare are allowing people to live longer, resulting in more elderly people around the world. But an aging world is also expected to result in soaring numbers of people suffering from dementia, with the number of cases, estimated at 35.6 million today, projected to triple by 2050.
The dementia numbers are a paradox for medical progress. “The better we do, the more we expect to have problems with dementia and we need to be prepared for that,” Dr. Shekhar Saxena, the head of the World Health Organization’s mental health division told the Associated Press.
The predicted proliferation of dementia will put new pressure on public health systems to improve care, according to a new report from the World Health Organization and Alzheimer’s Disease International. Only eight countries have national programs to address dementia, including Australia, Denmark, France and Japan. The United States is not among them. Diagnosis is faulty and stigma has persisted.
Dementia degrades memory, thinking, behavior and everyday skills, often putting a heavy burden on families to care for loved ones suffering from the syndrome. Families and friends shoulder most of the estimated $604-billion cost of caring for people with dementia, including their own loss of income.
“The catastrophic cost of care drives millions of households below the poverty line,” Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, wrote in a foreword to the report.
The increase is expected to hit poorer nations especially hard in the coming decades. People living in low- and middle-income countries now make up 58% of dementia cases, a figure expected to rise to more than 70%.
Though millions of people around the world live with dementia, the syndrome is often diagnosed late or not at all, the report found. Only 20% to 50% of cases are routinely recognized, even in wealthy countries. Stigma often discourages people from getting diagnosed or treated.
The increase in dementia is just one of the anticipated effects of the graying of the globe. People above age 60, who now make up roughly 10% of the global population, are expected to make up 22% of the population in the next four decades, according to a report recently presented at the World Economic Forum, a phenomenon expected to affect medicine, markets, labor and culture.
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