SCMP | 4th August 2008
Stanford University researchers have developed a cancer vaccine using tobacco leaves that triggers the body’s immune system, can be tailored to a person’s tumour type and has no significant side effects. It has cured cancer in mice, but the researchers haven’t yet proved that the immune response it sparks in people is sufficient to do the same. However, of 16 patients recently diagnosed with incurable follicular B-cell lymphoma who were given the vaccine, none experienced major side effects and 13 developed an immune response. Plant-based vaccines can be developed faster and cheaper that those using animal or human cells, don’t carry the same risk of infection, and the antibodies produced may trigger a stronger immune response, AFP reports.