THE possibility of a tumour growing back is a constant worry for cancer patients in remission. Now preliminary results suggest that a protein usually found in the testes could be used to stop ovarian cancer from returning.
The protein, called NY-ESO-1, is also produced in around 40 per cent of ovarian tumours. Kunle Odunsi at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, and his colleagues developed a vaccine that uses fragments of NY-ESO-1 to stimulate the immune system to kill cells that are producing the protein.
In a trial in which 18 women with recurring NY-ESO-1 ovarian cancer were given the vaccine, 15 produced immune cells specific to the protein. A year later they remained tumour-free, while the women who didn鈥檛 respond saw their cancer return within six months (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ).
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