More on cancer vaccines

Here's a little more about those well publicized cancer vaccines. They have their pluses and minuses which are clearly illustrated in these two diagrams:

Some of the downsides are clear that they are so far very expensive, may have to be custom made, and are for very specific treatments. But one of the very clear upsides is that where one is working, companies are trying more:

Many more cancer vaccines are under development, with hundreds of trials underway in patients with breast, prostate, lung, kidney, colon, cervical, brain, and pancreatic cancers, as well as lymphomas. Once companies confirm the effectiveness of these therapies in one type of cancer, they are likely to try them in others.
“From the immune point of view, the distinction between one cancer type and the next is not so important,’’ said Dranoff, who did early work on Yervoy. “That’s part of why so many companies now are developing these agents.’’

So a lot more promise but we need to be patient. Crap. I am sick of being a patient patient. But I will suck it up and continue to optimistically watch this progress.