Breast cancer vaccine in sight

A vaccine made of stem cells taught the immune systems of mice to fight cancer, in a study that may pave the way to preventing the disease in humans.   

Stem cells share similarities with cancer, so researchers used them to teach the bodies of the mice to recognize and fight the disease. 

The 'vaccine,' developed by researchers at Stanford University, plus an immunity-boosting agent shrunk tumors in the majority of the mice, and two of them beat the cancer entirely.

The scientists say that their new method shows promise as a personalized way to someday preventatively immunize humans against their own cancers.

Cancer occurs when cells start multiplying and growing out of control. Scientists discovered that, as healthy cells undergo this change, they revert back to a state very similar to their early development stages.

Vaccines work to prevent infections by introducing a similar but less harmful germs to the body so that our immune systems get a sort of primer course on what these illnesses look like and how to fight them.

So the Stanford researchers posited that the pre-cancer-like developmental cells could work in much the same way, preparing immune cells to be on high alert for cells that might be ready to turn to tumors.

To test their theory, they used easy-to-extract skin and blood cells from mice to create induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells by giving them a sort of genetic bath that rewound their developmental clocks.

These are sometimes called 'master' cells because, in the early stages of a fetus's development, pluripotent cells are poised to morph into any kind of tissue.