PHILADELPHIA, March 28 (UPI) -- A new vaccine to treat melanoma shows promise in studies and could benefit about one -third of patients with the deadly disease.
Researchers at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia started with a protein peptide -- BRAFV600E -- found in about 70 percent of melanomas, to stimulate immune cells, or "killer T cells," to attack the melanoma cells.
They then used another immune cell known as a monocyte to present the peptide to the killer T cells, which prompted the T cells to attack the melanoma cells.
"In our experiments, we saw a strong cancer-killing immune response when killer T cells are stimulated with this peptide," says Dorothee Herlyn, professor in the immunology program and molecular and cellular oncogenesis program at Wistar.
"The results emphasize the potential of this approach for creating an effective melanoma vaccine, and we hope to move toward human clinical trials as soon as possible," she said.
The researchers said that about half of all melanoma patients have killer T cells that are capable of recognizing the BRAFV600E peptide.
By taking that 50 percent of patients and combining that number with the percentage of melanoma patients whose disease carries the peptide -- 70 percent -- a melanoma vaccine based on the peptide BRAFV600E would be effective in roughly one-third of all melanoma patients.
