Scientists worldwide are testing a wide range of potential vaccines to counter melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer that claims thousands of lives each year. Promising early results were reported at the fourth World Conference on Melanoma in Sydney this week, although researchers warned the technology was still in its early stages.
"Vaccines are the hope of the future for the prevention of recurrence of melanoma," said Professor William McCarthy of Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
More than 90,000 new cases of melanoma are reported around the world each year, about 6,000 in Australia, which has the highest incidence of the lifestyle-related disease.
The traditional treatment is to remove tumours by surgery, but the new hope is to combine surgery with a therapeutic vaccine, manufactured from the tumourous cells, to boost the body's immune system and help it attack the disease.
Vaccine trials are focussing on patients with a 50 per cent risk of recurrence.Early results reported to the conference found patients given the vaccine lived 17 percent longer than those who had surgery only, although the trial is not yet complete.
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