Thanks Marzan,
I wish I could say that DCVax-Direct could be of benefit to me, but with a blood based cancer like leukemia you don't have a tumor to inject the vaccine into. That's not to say it couldn't work, perhaps making it and just putting it into the blood could have a benefit, but at this point it's certainly an unknown. In survivor's case their is no doubt that if he had a tumor show, getting some Direct into it would offer potential.
I'm not an expert on the technologies, I don't try to be, but I'm facinated by all that is happening, and as a patient at City of Hope have been amazed at what they do there that's completely unseen by patients. My Dr. heads hematology there and has been involved in T-cell work for ages, but you'd never know if you didn't discuss it with him. The patient I mentioned who had T-cells spiked a fever to 107 on their introduction, so it certainly was dangerous, and something my Dr. doesn't want to put me through, though it's a possibility should I come out of remission.
I believe there are many new and exciting developments in cancer, and in general I believe they'll work with a vaccine. I forget the company that advertises that we don't make anything you use, we make products that make many things you use work better. I think our vaccines will make many therapeutics work better. I think their could be a huge benefit to the use of DCVax-Direct before surgery if it can be given weeks to months before the surgery. My feeling is that if you get it into the mets which can't be see or removed at the time of the surgery, they may be prevented from growing and just die out, whereas without such treatments, mets often result in spreading the cancer, often not detected for many years after the cancer is surgically removed in spite of all the current treatment post surgery.
Perhaps a question that may be looked at in the future is, can DCVax-Direct, or something based on it, be utilized prior to a detectable cancer being found as a vaccine that would prevent it. It's the sort of question that could take decades to prove, as you're treating something you don't know will ever exist, but it's said that most of us have cancers that our bodies eliminate in the normal course of life, and we never learn of them. Boosting our bodies to do more certainly lies within the realm of possibilities. I believe any vaccine intended to lower the likelihood of cancer will be a personalized vaccine, it may not be DCVax-Direct, but there will be similarities.
Gary
