For convenience, these messages were combined into one document for this report but were not otherwise edited. Comments on the format of the posting on this web site should be addressed to Julius Ariail . This page has been accessed 922 times since October 30, 1998. Frida Stephenson concerning DNA vaccination of MM patients which could be very interesting. Olav, I am copying below the printout of Prof. Stevenson's presentation, and then will address more specifically some of your questions.
Vaccination is one of the most successful of science-based strategies to fight disease.
For many years clinicians and scientists had hoped to apply the approach against cancer, but they were frustrated by a lack of knowledge of tumour antigens. Recently, largely due to advances in molecular biology, our understanding of these antigens, and the way in which they are perceived by the immune system, has increased markedly. The next problem has been how to deliver the antigens to the patient in a form which would activate immune pathways designed to fight infectious disease, in order to attack the cancer cells. Our strategy is to use the genes which encode these antigens as a DNA vaccine. This means that the vaccine is a piece of DNA containing the code for the tumour antigen, which is injected into the patient.