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It's what the article says
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You cannot vaccinate against cancer. You can only avoid the things that cause it.
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What about immunotherapy? I'm sure there is some kind of vaccine containing cancer antibodies or activated white blood cells. (or at least in testfase)
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Certainly white blood cells would help but cancer isn't a virus or bacterium that can be killed right off. Cancer is a genetic mutation of cells.
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Edited by iRunOnCaffeine: 5/16/2015 10:34:41 AM*Facepalm* Cancer is by nature impossible to vaccinate for simply because everyone has different DNA and each persons cancer is caused by a different mutation. What this drug does is it blocks a hormone that can jumpstart lung cancer. This drug merely suppresses a hormone and thereby lowers your risk of lung cancer. If I were to make an antibody that targeted cancer cells it would be like giving myself an autoimmune disease because the difference between cancer and normal cells is ONE nucleic acid at the end of the DNA that causes the stop signal to not be given.
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No vaccine makes a person immune it makes them resistant.
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Yes, I am aware that everyone has different DNA and cancer is caused by various mutations. I did not mean a vaccine that prevents cancer from forming. I agree that that's impossible. (With our current understanding of cancer) This does not exclude the possibility to create a (patient specific) therapeutic vaccine against cancer.
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In general though, it does. That drug would be so expensive that only the ultra rich could afford it. It's also going to be very hard to keep that drug from targeting your healthy cells because as I said before it can be as small as one nucleic acid different.
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[quote]In general though, it does. That drug would be so expensive that only the ultra rich could afford it.[/quote] That's the sad truth of modern day medicine. Also, for a cell to become cancerous it needs multiple genetic mutations.