Cervical cancer is a cancer arising from the cervix. It is due to the abnormal growth of cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. Early on, typically no symptoms are seen. Later symptoms may include abnormal vaginal bleeding, pelvic pain or pain during sexual intercourse. While bleeding after sex may not be serious, it may also indicate the presence of cervical cancer.
Human papillomavirus infection is caused by a DNA virus from the Papillomaviridae family. Many HPV infections cause no symptoms and 90% resolve spontaneously within two years. In some cases, an HPV infection persists and results in either warts or precancerous lesions. These lesions, depending on the site affected, increase the risk of cancer of the cervix, vulva, vagina, penis, anus, mouth, tonsils, or throat. Nearly all cervical cancer is due to HPV and two strains – HPV16 and HPV18 – account for 70% of cases. HPV16 is responsible for almost 90% of HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancers. Between 60% and 90% of the other cancers listed above are also linked to HPV. HPV6 and HPV11 are common causes of genital warts and laryngeal papillomatosis.
Anal cancer is a cancer which arises from the anus, the distal opening of the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms may include bleeding from the anus or a lump near the anus. Other symptoms may include pain, itchiness, or discharge from the anus. A change in bowel movements may also occur.
A cancer vaccine is a vaccine that either treats existing cancer or prevents development of cancer. Vaccines that treat existing cancer are known as therapeutic cancer vaccines. Some of the vaccines are "autologous", being prepared from samples taken from the patient, and are specific to that patient.
Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), also known as cervical dysplasia, is the abnormal growth of cells on the surface of the cervix that could potentially lead to cervical cancer. More specifically, CIN refers to the potentially precancerous transformation of cells of the cervix.
Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines are vaccines that prevent infection by certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV). Available HPV vaccines protect against either two, four, or nine types of HPV. All HPV vaccines protect against at least HPV types 16 and 18, which cause the greatest risk of cervical cancer. It is estimated that HPV vaccines may prevent 70% of cervical cancer, 80% of anal cancer, 60% of vaginal cancer, 40% of vulvar cancer, and show more than 90% efficacy in preventing HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancers. They additionally prevent some genital warts, with the quadrivalent and nonavalent vaccines that protect against HPV types HPV-6 and HPV-11 providing greater protection.
Ian Hector Frazer is a Scottish-born Australian immunologist, the founding CEO and Director of Research of the Translational Research Institute (Australia). Frazer and Jian Zhou developed and patented the basic technology behind the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer at the University of Queensland. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute, Georgetown University, and University of Rochester also contributed to the further development of the cervical cancer vaccine in parallel.
Advaxis Inc. is an American company devoted to the discovery, development and commercialization of immunotherapies based on a technology platform which uses engineered Listeria monocytogenes. The company is headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey and was incorporated in Delaware in 2006.
Agenus Inc. is a Lexington, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company focused on immunotherapy including immuno-oncology, a field that uses the immune system to control or cure cancer. The company is developing checkpoint modulators (CPMs), patient-specific anti-cancer vaccines, and adjuvants that can be used with a range of vaccines. CPM development is a particularly fast-moving field, since early products have produced unprecedented clinical benefits for patients.
Cervarix is a vaccine against certain types of cancer-causing human papillomavirus (HPV).
According to the National Cancer Institute, a tumor antigen vaccine is a "vaccine made of cancer cells, parts of cancer cells, or pure tumor antigens ". A tumor antigen vaccine may stimulate the body's immune system to find and kill cancer cells. As such, tumor antigen vaccines are a type of cancer immunotherapy.
Cancer immunoprevention is the prevention of cancer onset with immunological means such as vaccines, immunostimulators or antibodies. Cancer immunoprevention is conceptually different from cancer immunotherapy, which aims at stimulating immunity in patients only after tumor onset, however the same immunological means can be used both in immunoprevention and in immunotherapy.
Oncophage, also known as cancer vaccine heat shock protein peptide complex-96 and cancer vaccine HSPPC-96, is a personalized cancer vaccine developed by the American biopharmaceutical company Antigenics Inc. that is evaluated in multiple clinical trials. It has been granted fast track and orphan drug designations from the US Food and Drug Administration for kidney cancer, metastatic melanoma, and glioma.
HspE7 is an investigational therapeutic vaccine candidate being developed by Nventa Biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of precancerous and cancerous lesions caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). HspE7 uses recombinant DNA technology to covalently fuse a heat shock protein (Hsp) to a target antigen, thereby stimulating cellular immune system responses to specific diseases. HspE7 is a patented construct consisting of the HPV Type 16 E7 protein and heat shock protein 65 (Hsp65) and is currently the only candidate using Hsp technology to target the over 20 million Americans already infected with HPV.
Tecemotide is a synthetic lipopeptide that is used as antigen in an investigational therapeutic cancer vaccine. The investigational therapeutic cancer vaccine is designed to induce a cellular immune response to cancer cells that express MUC1, a glycoprotein antigen that is widely over-expressed on common cancers such as lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colorectal cancer. The cellular immune response may lead to a rejection of tumor tissue expressing the MUC1 antigen.
Neuvenge, Lapuleucel-T, is a therapeutic cancer vaccine (TCV) in development by Dendreon (DNDN). It uses the "immunotherapy platform approach" first successfully demonstrated on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved TCV Provenge. It was first tested on breast cancer patients with tumors expressing HER2/neu, and is now scheduled to be tested on bladder cancer patients.
Jian Zhou was a Chinese virologist and cancer researcher, who with fellow researcher Ian Frazer, invented Gardasil and Cervarix, the vaccines for stimulating human immunological resistance to the cervical cancer-inducing human papilloma virus.
Eftilagimod alpha is a large-molecule cancer drug being developed by the clinical-stage biotechnology company Immutep. Efti is a soluble version of the immune checkpoint molecule LAG-3. It is an APC Activator used to increase an immune response to tumors, and is administered by subcutaneous injection. Efti has three intended clinical settings:
T lymphocytes are cells of the immune system that attack and destroy virus-infected cells, tumor cells and cells from transplanted organs. This occurs because each T cell is endowed with a highly specific receptor that can bind to an antigen present at the surface of another cell. The T cell receptor binds to a complex formed by a surface protein named "MHC" and a small peptide of about 9 amino-acids, which is located in a groove of the MHC molecule. This peptide can originate from a protein that remains within the cell. Whereas each T cell recognizes a single antigen, collectively the T cells are endowed with a large diversity of receptors targeted at a wide variety of antigens. T cells originate in the thymus. There a process named central tolerance eliminates the T cells that have a receptor recognizing an antigen present on normal cells of the organism. This enables the T cells to eliminate cells with "foreign" or "abnormal" antigens without harming the normal cells.
Transgene S.A. is a French biotechnology company founded in 1979. It is based in Illkirch-Graffenstaden, near Strasbourg, and develops and manufactures immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer.
