How personalized vaccines target cancer tumors

Mayo Clinic researchers are developing personalized lung cancer vaccines.

“We actually make a vaccine that’s specific for each individual’s cancers,” said Dr. Keith Knutson, a cancer vaccine researcher at Mayo Clinic.

The process involves analyzing cancer cells to create a one-of-a-kind vaccine.

“We can take a small part of that cancer and sequence that cancer and get the information that we need to design the vaccine,” he said.

The vaccine uses the immune system to identify and combat cancer.

“We can use that vaccine to hopefully prevent the disease from coming back, or we can use it to help shrink a tumor when given with other types of therapies,” Knutson said.

— MAYO CLINIC NEWS NETWORK