PITTSBURGH -- Vaccinations protect millions of people from common diseases like chicken pox, measles and flu, but is it possible to prevent cancer with a vaccine?

 

Researchers at the Hillman Cancer Center in Shadyside, Pa., think so.

 

In fact, one doctor there is already using a vaccine to treat malignant melanoma.

 

Nancy Cutright, a West Virginia teacher, loves boats and the ocean. She has spent a lot of time in the sun.

 

Cutright had a mole on her back for years and had it checked once years ago. She was told it was nothing to worry about.

 

She decided to have it checked again after a casual remark from a stranger.

 

"I was at the pool and a lady that was a nurse said you need to get that checked," Cutright said.

 

Cutright got the mole checked and, in 1996, she found out it was a malignant melanoma.

 

The mole was removed, and Cutright said everything looked normal until five years later.

 

"In 2001, I had a lymph node pop up under my arm. They biopsied it and found that melanoma was contained in the lymph node," Cutright said.

 

Cutright was treated with interferon, but a year later, the melanoma was back in lymph nodes under her other arm.

 

Needing more aggressive treatment, she went to Dr. John Kirkwood, director of the melanoma program at the Hillman Cancer Center.

 

Kirkwood -- a leader in the research and treatment of malignant melanoma -- is now treating some of his patients with a melanoma vaccine he developed.

 

"After literally 25 years of hard work with many, many drugs, it was about six years ago that we hit the first pay dirt. As it were, we discovered we could prevent relapse, prevent death and prolong survival in people who had melanoma," Kirkwood said.

 

An estimated 8,000 people die every year from melanoma. Sun exposure is the chief cause of the cancer.

 

Cutright has been getting the vaccine since July 2002. Every two weeks, she drives 580 miles round trip from her home to the Hillman Cancer Center.

 

Once she arrives, her vaccines are mixed in the lab and she gets them in six injections. Then she's back on the road home and has very few side effects.

 

"When I look at some of the other treatments some of the people have and see what they go through, it gives me strength. It's a piece of cake," Cutright said.

 

Cutright feels lucky that this option is available to her.

 

"It's cutting edge. They are trying to teach my body to see or recognize a melanoma and rally and fight and destroy it. I hope it's a springboard for all types of cancers," Cutright said.

 

That's also the hope of Dr. Olivera Finn of the Hillman Center.

 

Vaccines developed by Finn and her researchers have been used in a small number of patients with advanced, untreatable cancers.

 

"Right now, we are using vaccines and testing vaccines in people who already have cancer, and we're doing that and hope to slow down the disease progression or prevent recurrence," Finn said.

 

So far she is encouraged by the results.

 

"Ten to 20 percent of patients respond very well to the vaccine -- meaning that the disease slows down. They live a little longer and, more importantly, the vaccine is not toxic so they have no side effects," Finn said.

 

Right now, the vaccines are only given to people who already have cancer, but Finn thinks that will change in the not so distant future.

 

"A vaccine that can induce an immune response and can prevent disease recurrence without any toxicity is very, very close at hand. The hope is that we can prepare something that can be put in a vial and sit on the doctor's shelf and be administered to healthy individuals, so that when they are older they don't develop cancer," Finn said.

 

Kirkwood also feels wider use of cancer vaccines is not far off.

 

"Maybe not within two or three years, but certainly within five to 10 years. Do we see a time in the future when those vaccines can prevent the origin of the disease? That is the goal," Kirkwood said.

 

As for Cutright, she'll continue getting the vaccine until July. Her most recent tests show the cancer is gone.

 

"It was an answer to my prayers; you could even say it was a miracle," Cutright said.

 

 

Previous Stories:

• April 21, 2003: Cancer Vaccine Trials Under Way
• November 21, 2002: Vaccine May Help Prevent Cervical Cancer
• September 5, 2002: Researchers Work On Breast Cancer Vaccine
• August 5, 2002: Testing Ongoing For Prostate Cancer Vaccine