Kidney cancer vaccine falls short in clinical trial: study
Thu Jul 3, 7:02 PM ET
A new kidney cancer vaccine failed in last-phase clinical trials to
improve the odds of avoiding remission after tumour-removing surgery,
according to a study released Friday.
A team of researchers led by Christopher Wood of the Anderson Cancer
Center in Houston, Texas gave the vaccine, called vitespen, to 409
patients whose cancerous tumours had been removed.
They then compared the relapse and survival rates to a second group
that received no additional treatment.
The difference in outcomes was statistically insignificant, re****ted
the study, published in the British journal The Lancet.
A large number of renal cancel patients relapse after surgery, earlier
research has shown. When this happens, it is lethal -- there is no
cure for metastatic kidney cancer.
The new vaccine was designed to help prevent such remissions.
There were more than 200,000 new cases of kidney cancer worldwide in
2004, and just over 100,000 deaths, according to the International
Agency for Research on Cancer.
Renal cell carcinoma is the most common type of kidney cancer in
adults, accounting for about 85 percent of all kidney tumours.
The study also showed that a subset of patients with early stages of
the disease who had been given vitespin fared marginally better than a
control group, but said further trials were needed to verify these
results.
In a sharply-worded comment, also published in The Lancet, James Yang
of the National Cancer Institute of Bethesda, Maryland chided vaccine
manufacturers which "cannot accept the results of randomised trials"
that do not meet their expectations.
Selectively highlighting partial findings weakens the credibility of
the nascent field of cancer immunotherapy, he said.
Copyright =A9 2008 Agence France Presse
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