Cure All?

Over the weekend, a bunch of news outlets gave the very exciting news that a "universal vaccine for cancer" might have been found.

All of the excitement came from a report about a vaccine that targets a substance called Mucin 1, a protein found on about 90% of cancer cells. Like most immunotherapies, this vaccine, called ImMucin, stimulates the body's immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells that have this protein. Because so many different cancers have the protein, it is theoretically possible that it could work on 90% of cancers, making it as close to "universal" as anything we have.

There are some cautions, however, before we get too excited about this. Many of them are detailed here.

First, this is still very much in the trail stage. It confirms a study involving mice, but the trial that prompted all of this hype involved just 10 people. And only 3 of the 10 had a complete response (though the others had a "robust and specific immune response" as well). And all 10 had the same cancer, multiple myeloma, a blood cancer.

That hardly adds up to 90% of cancers being cured.

What's more, the information comes from a press release from the company that makes the vaccine. That's fine, but the results haven't been published yet in a medical journal, where they would be reviewed by other researchers before being accepted.

So while it was a small sample, we can still be hopeful about this. Many cancer experts believe that immunotherapy holds some real keys to the future of cancer treatment, so we can say we'll keep a hopeful eye on this one.

Just hold off for a while on taking up smoking or something.