Thrilling Photos

A new cancer treatment may be as easy as inserting a small disk to help blast tumors away. A new cancer vaccine, which is delivered by a fingernail-size implant, eliminated melanoma tumors in a study done in mice. This new treatment method uses disks that are approximately 8.5 millimeters in diameter and are loaded with tumor-specific antigens. The disk are implanted just under the skin to help reprogram the immune system to help attack tumors, since cancer cells are very good at evading the immune system because the body does not recognize them as “foreign.”

The scientists from Harvard University, who developed this new implant, predicted that it would be more effective and easier to use than other cancer vaccines that are currently undergoing clinical trails. This idea of using a vaccine to create an immune attack against a tumor is not a new one and there are also several other versions currently in clinical trials. However, most of the these other studies look at removing immune cells from the body, then reprogramming them to recognize the individual’s cancer and then returning them to help fight the cancer. However, more than 90 percent of the re-injected cells have died before they even had any effect in the experiments.

David J. Mooney, who is a bioengineering professor, said, “Inserted anywhere under the skin—much like the implantable contraceptives that can be placed in a woman’s arm—the implants activate an immune response that destroys tumor cells.”

The new disks release cytokines, which are considered powerful recruiters of immune system messengers that are called dendritic cells. These types of cells are able to enter the implant, where they will be exposed to antigens specific to the type of tumor that is being targeted in the particular person. Then, the dendritic will “report” to the nearby lymph nodes, where they will tell the immune system T cells to seek out and destroy the tumor cells.

The researchers noted that because this new method targets only the tumor cells, there is no damage done to the healthy tissue like there is with chemotherapy. They are also hoping that since this does not damage the healthy tissue that this technique might produce long-term resistance, reducing the chance of relapse.