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 or tumor antigen vaccines. Some of the vaccines are "autologous", being prepared from samples taken from the patient, and are specific to that patient.
Chandler Park is an American physician, medical journalist, and clinical researcher. In June 2021, his cancer research was published in prominent medical journals including the New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of Clinical Oncology. Park also contributes regularly as an expert physician for popular newspapers and magazines such as Newsweek, Reader's Digest, U.S. News & World Report, The Exponent-Telegram, College of St. Scholastica, and Medscape and writes medical news for Doximity. In 2020, Park was selected as the President of the Kentucky Society of Clinical Oncology. The Kentucky Society of Clinical Oncology is the state affiliate of American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Society of Hematology, and National Cancer Institute.
GD2 is a disialoganglioside expressed on tumors of neuroectodermal origin, including human neuroblastoma and melanoma, with highly restricted expression on normal tissues, principally to the cerebellum and peripheral nerves in humans.
Cancer immunotherapy is the stimulation of the immune system to treat cancer, improving on the immune system's natural ability to fight the disease. It is an application of the fundamental research of cancer immunology and a growing subspecialty of oncology.
Ipilimumab, sold under the brand name Yervoy, is a monoclonal antibody medication that works to activate the immune system by targeting CTLA-4, a protein receptor that downregulates the immune system.
Mitumomab (BEC-2) is a mouse anti-BEC-2 monoclonal antibody investigated for the treatment of small cell lung carcinoma in combination with BCG vaccination. Mitumomab attacks tumour cells, while the vaccine is thought to activate the immune system. It was developed by ImClone and Merck.
Naptumomab estafenatox (ABR-217620) is a drug being developed for the treatment of various types of cancer like non-small cell lung carcinoma and renal cell carcinoma.
Jonathan W. Simons is an American physician-scientist, medical oncologist, and leader in prostate cancer research. In August 2021, Simons was appointed the medical director and Chief Science Officer of the Marcus Foundation. Prior to joining the Marcus Foundation, he served a 14-year tenure as the President and chief executive officer of the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Simons’ laboratories, partly funded by the Prostate Cancer Foundation, at Johns Hopkins University and Emory University made original contributions to understanding the molecular biology of prostate cancer metastasis and principles of “broken immune tolerance” via T cell based immunotherapy for prostate cancer. The Simons lab invented GM-CSF genetically engineered vaccines for prostate cancer in rodents and humans for these studies, and subsequently Simons’ clinical team took the biotechnology into the world’s first human gene therapy clinical trials for advanced prostate cancer at Johns Hopkins.
Combined small cell lung carcinoma is a form of multiphasic lung cancer that is diagnosed by a pathologist when a malignant tumor, arising from transformed cells originating in lung tissue, contains a component of;small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC), admixed with one components of any histological variant of non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) in any relative proportion.
Nivolumab, sold under the brand name Opdivo, is a medication used to treat a number of types of cancer. This includes melanoma, lung cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma, renal cell carcinoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, head and neck cancer, urothelial carcinoma, colon cancer, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, liver cancer, gastric cancer, and esophageal or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer. It is used by slow injection into a vein.
PROSTVAC is a cancer immunotherapy candidate in clinical development by Bavarian Nordic for the treatment of all prostate cancer although clinical trials are focusing on more advanced cases of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). PROSTVAC is a vaccine designed to enable the immune system to recognize and attack prostate cancer cells by triggering a specific and targeted T cell immune response to cancer cells that express the tumor-associated antigen prostate-specific antigen (PSA).
Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University is a nonprofit cancer research and patient care center based in Atlanta, Georgia. Winship Cancer Institute is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in Georgia.
Vaccinogen Inc. is a US biotechnology company based in Baltimore. It is currently developing a potential cancer immunotherapy called OncoVAX, where a patient’s own tumor cells are used as the vaccine, adjuvanted by BCG. This product was evaluated in Phase III in colon cancer in the 1990s and another Phase III study, called ACTIVE, is currently recruiting stage II colon cancer patients. Vaccinogen calls its approach 'Active Specific Immunotherapy' or ASI.
Andrew Louis Pecora is an American hematologist and oncologist involved in research on the use of stem cells and oncolytic viruses to treat diseases, including cancer. He is the CEO of Outcomes Matter Innovations. As of 2020, he is on the Board of Directors Celularity, Inc. (since 2017) and founder and Executive Chairman, COTA, Inc.. Previously, he was chief innovations officer, professor and vice president of cancer services at the John Theurer Cancer Center, part of the Hackensack University Medical Center. He is a professor of medicine and oncology at Georgetown University.
Crystal L. Mackall is an American physician and immunologist. She is currently the Ernest and Amelia Gallo Family Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Stanford University. She is the founding director of the Stanford Center for Cancer Cell Therapy.
Deborah Watkins Bruner is an American researcher, clinical trialist, and academic. She is the senior vice president for research at Emory University. Her research focus is on patient reported outcomes, symptom management across cancer sites, sexuality after cancer treatment, and effectiveness of radiotherapy modalities. Bruner's research has been continually funding since 1998, with total funding of her research exceeding $180 million. She is ranked among the top five percent of all National Institutes of Health-funded investigators worldwide since 2012, according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research.
Nabil F. Saba is an American oncologist. He is currently Professor and Vice-chair of Hematology and Medical Oncology, and Professor of Otolaryngology at the Winship Cancer Institute at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. He is a specialist in the field of head and neck oncology. Saba has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles. He is the inaugural Lynne and Howard Halpern Chair in Head and Neck Cancer Research.
Roy S. Herbst is an American oncologist who is the Ensign Professor of Medicine, Professor of Pharmacology, Chief of Medical Oncology, and Associate Director for Translational Research at Yale Cancer Center and Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.
G1 Therapeutics, Inc. is an American biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The company specializes in developing and commercializing small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of patients with cancer.
Damian E. Dupuy, M.D., F.A.C.R. is an Adjunct Professor of Diagnostic Imaging at Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School and Director of Ablation services at Cape Cod Hospital. He is also a Member of Cape Cod preferred Physicians.
