In a clinical trial conducted at the University of Nottingham, scientists gave a vaccine to 67 colorectal cancer patients before and after surgery to remove the cancerous tumors. The British researchers say they have developed a vaccine that stimulates the immune system to fight colorectal cancer cells.

Vaccine trials are not new in the search for effective cancer treatments but many times they are given as a last resort and are not effective. The vaccine is named 105AD7. The antibody in the vaccine was cloned from a patient who survived seven years despite liver metastasis from colorectal cancer. Lindy Durrant, study senior author and professor of cancer immunotherapy said "This is very unusual, as most patients die within a year of getting liver metastasis. I thought if this antibody had helped this patient, if we could clone it, it might help others".

The researchers reported in the current issue of Clinical Cancer Research that the vaccine helped stimulate immune cell production in up to seventy percent of the patients studied.

Lindy Durrant also states that "This is the first vaccine shown to stimulate TNF-alfpha -- an immune system protein that is very effective at killing cancer cells"