Can we prevent cancer with an injection? That’s what researchers say

The community scientist has done everything possible to present new treatments that help prevent diseases like the different types of cancer .

And, in this area, researchers are work on vaccines train the immune system of healthy people, with the aim of eliminating signs of disease before it develops .

Some do first vaccine trials for patients with inherited genetic mutations that put them at higher risk to face a diagnosis.

There are also other specialists who design them with the aim of eliminate precancerous lesions and stop the disease .

Experts engaged in this area of ​​study have suggested that vaccines could hold promise in preventing .

One of them is Ajay Bansal, a gastroenterologist at the University of Kansas Cancer Center, who tests three vaccines for people with Lynch syndrome .

It’s a genetic disease that increases the risk of several types of cancer and is passed from parents to children according to an article in Mayo Clinic .

Detailed Bansal Wall Street Journal that people With this syndrome, they can face a risk of up to 80% of developing colorectal cancer. usually before age 50.

The oncologist is convinced that the tests you do could help prevent this last condition.

According to the doctor’s words, vaccine treatments They could be “the future of cancer prevention” .

Specialists told the aforementioned newspaper that There are already vaccines that prevent certain types of cancer and target the viruses that cause them. .

There is one who protects people from HPV (Human Papillomavirus), a diagnosis that can lead to conditions such as cervical cancer .

There is also another one that deals with hepatitis B, a disease that can cause liver cancer if it occurs for a long time .

These types of injections usually contain weakened pathogens or non-contagious parts thereof, which can mimic an infection and teach the immune system to recognize and attack the real disease explain the specialists Newspaper.

However, Most cancers are not caused by infection. and they usually start as mutated cells that mix with healthy tissue, they added.

This is why researchers They try different methods through which the disease can be attacked preventively.

Neeha Zaidi, an oncologist at John Hopkins’ Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, said she and her team are directing their work toward mutated proteins linked to a gene called KRAS, which can malfunction and stimulate tumor growth. in cancers such as lung and pancreas.

From the National Cancer Institute of the United States explains that A KRAS gene is: “(A) gene that gives rise to a protein that participates in cellular signaling pathways. “which control the multiplication, maturation and destruction of cells.”

“They were found mutated (altered) forms of the KRAS gene in certain types of cancer such as non-small cell lung cancer, colorectal cancer and pancreatic cancer. “It is possible that these changes stimulate cells to multiply and spread throughout the body.”

“To find out if a patient’s tumor has a mutated or wild form of the KRAS gene can help plan treatment of cancer,” they add of the body.

Zaidi and his colleagues developed a vaccine that uses mutated KRAS protein fragments and a drug that seeks to activate immune cells .

“Cancer cells and even precancerous cells know how to hide from the immune system. » the oncologist told the Journal, later adding that “they need help from a vaccine.”

The team carried out a first test with a sample of 15 people at high risk of pancreatic cancer .

The doctor stated that, After four months, all participants had generated immune responses against KRAS proteins . This, without security problems, he added.

The result of this test seemed promising to the researchers, who shared their findings in the American Association for Cancer Research .

On the other hand, There are researchers who have focused on mRNA and DNA by sending fragments of genetic material so that patients’ bodies can produce target proteins themselves.

So, they hope that it can be generate an immune response against these.

Penn Medicine specialists test a DNA vaccine supplemented with a mild electric shock to propel it into cells .

Once there, saved by Newspaper, DNA is used to make an enzyme called telomerase, which creates a protein often abundant in several types of cancer. .

The vaccine too includes medication to alert the immune system .

That is tested in people with inherited BRCA genetic mutations, which may increase the risk of diagnoses such as breast or ovarian cancer as explained National Cancer Institute of the United States in an article.

Director of the Abramson Cancer Center at Penn Medicine, Robert Vonderheide, said: Although they don’t yet know if the vaccine will work, it could be expanded to more types of cancer or risk factors. .

These are just some of the scientific works which are developed with the aim of preventing cancer with the support of vaccines.

Biotechnology companies like Moderna is also working on vaccines to treat this disease or prevent its return. according to the aforementioned American newspaper.

Vonderheide stated that, If enough progress is made, it may eventually be possible to design a universal vaccine to prevent cancer.

However, Dr. G. Thomas Budd is one of the who are rather skeptical about this possibility .

The specialist, who is leading a study at the Cleveland Clinic to develop a vaccine to prevent a type of breast cancer, told the Newspaper that even Cancer diagnoses of the same type may have different causes .

The latter, he declared, contributes to ensuring that complex that a universal prevention vaccine can be designed .

Under this line he commented for reference: “We do not have a universal flu vaccine, much less a vaccine against all infectious diseases” .

However, he said that Yes, he believes that it is possible that in the future specific vaccines will be developed to deal with the respective risks of suffering from different types of cancer. .