Scientists have crafted an experimental vaccine against advanced ovarian cancer that was safe and triggered an immune response using muscled-up blood cells primed by tumors that were taken from the patients. It took 7 days to make the injection individually for each woman, according to a report today at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Washington. The therapeutic vaccine was the first step in a two-part process that involved teaching the woman’s blood cells to recognize the cancer, then infusing an army of her own infection-fighting immune system cells to attack the tumor. The study was the first clinical trial of this new approach.
