Tetanus Vaccine Boosts Cancer Vaccine in Fighting Brain Tumor

It’s one of the oldest, most effective, and most familiar vaccines – and it just became another tool in our arsenal to fight cancer. In a small trial involving 12 patients, researchers recently used the tetanus vaccine – yes, the same vaccine you get when you end up in the ER after stepping on a rusty nail – to “prime” the immune systems of patients with brain tumors. Then they administered immunotherapy using a new kind of cellular cancer vaccine that trains the immune system to fight the tumor without affecting nearby healthy cells.

Source: Forbes.com Healthcare News - March 15, 2015 Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Tara Haelle Source Type: news