Lung Cancer Vaccine

The vaccine, called Lucanix is made of lung cancer cells.
But these are modified so they no longer produce a protein they use to blindfold the immune system.
"The reason why you develop lung cancer, or cancer in general, is because your immune system failed to recognize that cancer. So we need to change it. We need to re-teach the immune system to do their job," said Principal Investigator Dr. Lyudmila Bazhenova.
Doctors at the University of California San Diego treated the very first patient with the new therapy - now in its final testing phase.
"The drug already passed phase 1 and phase 2 investigations and now they're moving it into the phase 3, to get an absolute final proof of its efficacy," said Dr. Bazhenova.
So far, the findings show that patients who receive Lucanix live longer than patients who receive a placebo.
For information on the trial, go to http://clinicaltrials.gov. Then type the trial identification number in the search box: NCT00676507.