|  |  |  | | | | £2.3 MILLION BOOST TO SOUTHAMPTON'S PIONEERING CANCER VACCINE RESEARCH | | | | |
| |  Professor Freda Stevenson and her team at Southampton General Hospital will use the grant to make the vaccines yet more effective.
Release Date: 10th June 2003
Southampton scientists have received a vital boost to their quest to develop DNA cancer vaccines for patients with leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma.
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The University of Southampton team was today awarded £2.3 million by Leukaemia Research (LRF) to refine the revolutionary therapy, and work on developing the next generation of blood cancer vaccine treatments. This grant is part of a new £3.4 million funding package for the University announced today by the charity.
Though still in its infancy, this revolutionary approach to attacking cancer, by switching the patient's immune system on to the disease, has caused much interest from doctors and scientists from around the world.
Professor Freda Stevenson and her team at Southampton General Hospital will use the grant to make the vaccines yet more effective by finding better ways to deliver them to patients and by strengthening the way they stimulate the immune system to attack.
Hythe myeloma patient Michael Wallace, who is one of the first people to take part in the myeloma DNA vaccine trial, today (Tuesday 10th June) presented a cheque on behalf of the charity to the head of the University's medical school, Professor Chris Thompson.
Leukaemia Research Scientific Director, Dr David Grant, says: "This £2.3 million commitment shows just how excited we are by Professor Stevenson's work. Research never stands still and we need to be thinking about the next generation of vaccines, and then the next, until we have a system that we know works every time. This grant is part of that continuous advance to ever better treatment.
"There has long been the suspicion that the immune system can act against cancer cells. This has fired scientists and clinicians to seek ways to harness this potential. At last, we are beginning to see years of research translated into benefits for patients."
Professor Freda Stevenson explains: "Tumour cells are extremely cunning, so it has been a significant achievement to develop a vaccine which enables the immune system to recognize and kill off these cells."
Her vaccine work has developed from an understanding of the complexities of the immune system and the way healthy cells and cancerous cells differ. Some of these differences give rise to new proteins expressed by the cancer cells, and these became potential targets for generating immune responses.
Stressing the need for more effective cancer treatments, Professor Stevenson said: "The drugs currently used to treat myeloma can kill myeloma cells but they do not always rid patients of all their disease.
"We need to find ways to get long-term control of the cancer. This is why the immune system is so important. A combination of powerful cancer-killing drugs and a simple vaccination that ensures the immune cells sweep up any residual cancer cells would be a major step forward in the treatment of these diseases."
65-year-old Michael Wallace from Hythe was diagnosed with myeloma, a disease which affects 3,000 people in the UK each year, in 2000. After being treated with chemotherapy to kill the cancer cells, he underwent a transplant using his own bone marrow.
He was then given the DNA vaccine as part of his treatment - a series of injections over the course of several months.
"I am glad to say my disease seems to be under control. I hope that by taking part in this trial we find new ways of defeating myeloma, lymphoma, leukaemia and related cancers of the blood," says Michael.
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