Vaccine Fights Advanced Melanoma
A new vaccine helps to shrink tumors in people with advanced melanoma, researchers report. The vaccine includes a peptide â part of a protein â found on the surface of melanoma cells. It primes the immune system to recognize and attack cells with this peptide. The study included 185 people. They were randomly divided into two groups. Both groups received interleukin-2. This drug boosts one type of cell in the immune system. One of the groups also received the vaccine. Tumors shrank by at least half in 16% of the group that received the vaccine. This compares with 6% of the group that got interleukin-2 alone. The average time until the disease got worse was a bit longer with the vaccine â 2.2 months compared with 1.6 months. People also lived longer with the vaccine. Their median survival was 18 months, compared with 11 months for the interleukin-2 only group.