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Scientists at the University of Oxford have begun developing the world’s first ovarian cancer vaccine, which they hope will soon eradicate the cancer completely.
As Sky News reports, this vaccine candidate is similar to the vaccine for HPV (human papillomavirus), which has made great progress in reducing the number of people infected.
It has been developed to give the immune system the ability to recognize and attack early stage ovarian cancer cells.
The team behind the shot has just been awarded a $785,000 grant from Cancer Research UK. However, much work remains before it can be widely distributed. Researchers have not yet announced when human clinical trials will begin. Vaccines must go through several trials before being approved, a process that can take several years.
For now, the plan is to focus on women who carry one of two specific gene mutations known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, which are associated with a higher risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Team leader Ahmed Ahmed, a professor at the University of Oxford, told Forbes that women with these mutations can opt for surgery as a pre-emptive attack against their cancer, but the procedure comes with major caveats. The life force will be taken away from the woman who chooses surgery. With their reduced ability to bear children, women are placed in the very unenviable position of having to make very difficult choices. Vaccines, on the other hand, are not.
Therefore, in order to create a vaccine, the team is working on identifying genetic mutations that the immune system can target with the help of a vaccine.
“Educating the immune system to recognize the very early signs of cancer is a challenge,” Ahmed told Forbes. “But we now have very sophisticated tools that give us real insight into how the immune system recognizes ovarian cancer.”
“OvarianVax has the potential to provide a solution to prevent cancer, first for high-risk women and, if trials are successful, more broadly,” he added.
Ahmed and his colleagues hope the vaccine will allow women to maintain their ability to bear children while allowing their bodies to fight the disease more effectively.
“There’s still a long way to go, but it’s a really exciting time,” Ahmed told Sky News.
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