Vaccine mobilizes the immune system to wage war on its traitorous Cancer Cells.

A woman with advanced cervical cancer is the first patient part of a trial run. We’ve gotten so used to thinking about beating cancer with human-made weapons that we forget our body’s got its own army to fight diseases. The new vaccine works by activating the body’s immune system and turns it against the cells that form cancerous tumors. One way to pinpoint a cancer cell is to target the engine that puts it into overdrive: a mutated version of an enzyme known as hTERT. The vaccine contains a small chunk of hTERT that it presents to the immune system’s cells in hopes that they’ll target and kill cells that have a matching piece. In addition to getting the vaccine, in the Phase I trial, patients will also get a low dose of a chemotherapy drug to kickstart their immune systems. With the vaccine, the researchers hope the body will get a boost. The immune systems of people with advanced cancer are usually too weak to kill diseased cells without any external help. The study’s first patient was injected with the vaccine in early February and has yet to experience the flu-like symptoms. We’ve used vaccines to prevent cancer in the past, but using them to treat cancer is pretty new territory.

In Playas De Tijuana Mexico, however, Chipsa Hospital has been treating various cancers with vaccines, since 1996. Located just south of the border they have been on the forefront of breakthrough cancer therapies for over 37 years. In fact their unique protocol to cancer treatments allows for “true” immunotherapy, where you bodies immune system is strengthened and actually beats the cancer. While this approach is rather new in the United States, Chipsa and other other hospitals around the word have been using it for decades.

To learn more about Chipsa’s approach to fighting cancer and to watch a short video, click here.