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Skin implant to fight cancer developed

Scientist
Thu, 2009-11-26 08:29.
Eileen Berardini

It's being billed as a CANCER KILLER FOR A KILLER CANCER. Harvard researchers have developed a vaccine against Melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer.  Melanoma claims a thousand lives a year in Canada and five thousand on average are diagnosed with the disease.

An implant which inserts a cancer vaccine into the skin to destroy tumours without harming any other parts of the body has been developed by scientists.

The tiny disk is mainly air, enabling it to easily enter disease fighting cells which are encouraged to attack and kill the cancer.

It has successfully eliminated melanoma tumours, the most serious form of skin cancer, in mice - the first time a cancer vaccine has worked in mammals.  This vaccine could be ready for human trials in a year.

The findings of the research have been published in Science Translational Medicine.


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