Disease-Causing Bugs May Help Treat Cancer

While it may be counterintuitive, research seems to be proving that infecting a person with the same bacteria that causes listeriosis may increase the patient's ability to kill tumors. The idea, like is the case with many vaccinations, is to jump start the body's natural immune system by prompting it with the bacteria, which is modified to trigger and attack on cancer cells.

Advaxis, an American vaccine company, picked Listeria monocytogenes because it has the ability to hide in immune cells, known as antigen-presenting cells (APCs). These cells help to ready the immune system to attack a specific strain of microbe.

Advaxis altered the bacteria a bit in order to keep it from being harmful once it enters the body. After it enters the APC, it releases bits of HPV-E7, which is a molecule that is found on the exterior of cervical cancer cells. Once the HPV-E7 has been shown to the other immune cells, the APCs prepare them to attack the cancer cells.

In an early trial of the drug, 13 women suffering from advanced cervical cancer were injected with Advaxis and four responded to the treatment. More than two years later, one is completely tumor free and the other three women's tumors decreased in size by 20 percent. Seven of the original 13 women have since died from their cancers.

Because of these results, Advaxis hopes to start another trial on 180 more women whose cervical cancers that are less advanced. John Stanford at the University College London, who has worked with a team of other doctors in treating patients with Mycrobacterium vaccae, suggests that Advaxis might need to give booster shots to sustain the effect of the drug.

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