I know people are skeptical of Holy Grail terms like "cancer vaccine" but this principle - generate antibodies against a protein that only cancer cells produce - is a dream that many have been working towards for years. Google "prostatic acid phosphatase vaccine" for a similar experiment. I'm an aspiring oncologist and this is why - we live in an age where the focus isn't on finding some miracle chemical 'cure' but rather in helping the body's own immune system to hunt down the cancer cells more thoroughly, less painfully, and with a lower rate of recurrence.
The genetic revolution was a big step for cancer but the proteomic revolution will truly transform the field. If any of you are familiar with herceptin or gleevec, you know that they're very different from the original chemo agents that kill rapidly dividing cells (tumors, mucosa, hair follicles). They target specific vulnerabilities of the cancer cells that were only possible with modern molecular biology techniques.
Throughout the history of oncology, the problem has been that cancer cells just don't look all that different from normal cells. Not nearly enough to, say, find or synthesize a poison that you can be sure will only reach the cancer. It may be possible with Star Trek technology, but not ours.
We don't need that, though, if we can co-opt our own ruthlessly efficient and incredibly adaptable immune systems, and there's two ways to do that. One is to force cancer cells to produce molecular "kill me" signs, which is also in the works. The other, just like this vaccine, is to show the body a cancer-specific protein and say "kill this". Some combination of these two approaches will almost certainly be in the future standard of care, and with the price and time of DNA and protein analysis dropping exponentially (Human Genome Project took 13 years and cost $2.7 billion, and now we can do the same for $1,000 in a week) we will be able to tailor treatments to each patient's specific variant of cancer.
I don't know if this vaccine is all it's cracked up to be, we'll see if it's really The One, but make no mistake, this is what the future WILL look like.
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