Melanoma vaccine

A personalised vaccine against melanoma can more than double the survival
rate for patients with the advanced form of this skin cancer. Doctors at
Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia create customised vaccines from
patients’ own cancer cells by inactivating them and altering their surface
proteins with dinitrophenol. Five-year survival rates in 214 patients with
advanced disease increased from around 20 per cent to 50 per cent and a
randomised phase III trial of 400 patients across the US is planned.