Image via WikipediaOne more scientist of Greek decent is making his mark in the medical world. Cypriot native and Head of the Division of Surgery and Oncology at the University of Liverpool as well as Honorary Consultant Surgeon at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, John Neoptolemos, says he aspires that his TeloVac vaccine can abolish pancreatic cancer.
The universal vaccine could actually revolutionise the treatment of cancer and word has it that it could be available in just as little as two years. The TeloVac jab is part of a new generation of drugs that use the body’s own defences to fight the disease, stopping tumours in their tracks. TeloVac has already been given to hundreds of Britons with pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest forms of the disease. But it is hoped it will be effective against many other tumours, including those of the skin, lung and liver. Breast and prostate cancers may also be within its grasp.
Together, the six forms of the disease claim more 70,000 lives a year in the UK.
In the case of pancreatic cancer, which has killed thousands of people including well-known actor Patrick Swayze, survival rates have barely improved in the past 40 years, and patients typically die within six months of diagnosis. Moreover, just three per cent survive five years, and it is the fifth biggest cancer killer in the UK. Although vaccines usually prevent disease, the TeloVac jab is designed as a treatment.
Vaccines are usually associated with preventing infections, but this is part of a new approach to try to stimulate the immune system to fight cancer. The trial involves regular doses of vaccine together with chemotherapy and compares this with chemotherapy alone.
The vaccine contains small sections of a protein, telomerase, which is over-produced by cancer cells. The aim is to stimulate the immune system to recognise the telomerase which sits on the surface of the cancer cells and to target the tumour.
Neoptolemos, says that the problem is tumours are clever and are able to turn the immune cells into traitors which help to guard the tumour, and adds that the vaccine takes away the masking effect of the tumour.
The TeloVac trial is being funded by Cancer Research UK. The charity is supporting trials against a range of cancers, using vaccines or antibody treatments to stimulate the immune system.
The Phase III or final stage TeloVac trial should produce results in just over a year which will show whether the vaccine has a positive effect.
Cancer Research UK is keen to stress that the vaccine is not a cure, but if it works, might prolong life.
Professor John Neoptolemos is Professor of Surgery and Head of the Division of Surgery and Oncology at the University of Liverpool and Honorary Consultant Surgeon at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and grew up in London (Stamford Hill Junior School and then Owen’s Grammar School for Boys, in Highbury).
As an undergraduate he studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge (Cambridge: BA 1973, MA 1976) before completing his clinical undergraduate training at Guys Hospital (Cambridge: MB, BChir 1976). Following housejobs in London he completed his academic and clinical training in Leicester under Prof. Sir Peter Bell, being awarded a Doctorate in Medicine (Leicester: MD, 1986) . In 1981 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. During this time he spent a year in San Diego, California (1985) with Prof. A Hofmann (the famous biliary gastroenterologist) and also Prof. Babs Moossa (an international pancreas surgeon). His education was completed following training with Prof. Henri Bismuth (Paris) and Prof. Hans Beger (Ulm), international liver and pancreas surgeons respectively.
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