突破：以色列研製全能癌症疫苗快將成功

突破：以色列研製癌症疫苗
Breakthrough: Israel Develops Cancer Vaccine
By Rivka Borochov
Translation by Autumnson Blog

Vaxil’s groundbreaking therapeutic vaccine, developed in Israel, could keep about 90 percent of cancers from coming back.
Vaxil在以色列發展的突破性治療性疫苗，可保持約90％的癌症病者回來。

As the world’s population lives longer than ever, if we don’t succumb to heart disease, strokes or accidents, it is more likely that cancer will get us one way or another. Cancer is tough to fight, as the body learns how to outsmart medical approaches that often kill normal cells while targeting the malignant ones.
隨著世界的人口活得比以往任何時候都長，如果我們不屈服於心臟病、中風或意外事故，它更有可能癌症會取去我們這樣或那樣的方式。癌症是難於戰鬥的，因為身體學會如何智取醫療方法，那往往殺死正常的細胞而同時針對惡性的。

In a breakthrough development, the Israeli company Vaxil BioTherapeutics has formulated a therapeutic cancer vaccine, now in clinical trials at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem. If all goes well, the vaccine could be available about six years down the road, to administer on a regular basis not only to help treat cancer but in order to keep the disease from recurring.
在一項突破性的發展，以色列公司Vaxil生物治療已經制定一種治療性的癌症疫苗，現正在耶路撒冷哈達薩大學醫學中心作臨床試驗。如果一切順利，該疫苗可在6年的路上面世，定期實施不僅能幫助治療癌症，而且保持防止疾病的經常性。
The vaccine is being tested against a type of blood cancer called multiple myeloma. If the substance works as hoped — and it looks like all arrows are pointing that way — its platform technology VaxHit could be applied to 90 percent of all known cancers, including prostate and breast cancer, solid and non-solid tumors.
疫苗正在被測試對抗一種稱為多發性骨髓瘤的血癌，如果該物質如所願般工作 - 它看來所有箭頭都指向那方 - 它的平台技術 VaxHit可適用於90％所有已知的癌症，包括前列腺癌和乳腺癌，固體和非固體的腫瘤。
“In cancer, the body knows something is not quite right but the immune system doesn’t know how to protect itself against the tumor like it does against an infection or virus. This is because cancer cells are the body’s own cells gone wrong,” says Julian Levy, the company’s CFO. “Coupled with that, a cancer patient has a depressed immune system, caused both by the illness and by the treatment.”
“在癌症，身體知道一些頗不妥當的東西，但免疫系統不知道如何像對抗感染或病毒般防止腫瘤。這是因為癌細胞是人體自身的細胞出錯，“該公司的首席財務官朱利安徵費說。 “再加上，一名癌症病人有削弱了的免疫系統，由病情和治療兩者共同造成。”
The trick is to activate a compromised immune system to mobilize against the threat.
訣竅是激活妥協了的免疫系統，動員起來對抗威脅。

一種疫苗像藥物般工作
A vaccine that works like a drug

A traditional vaccine helps the body’s immune system fend off foreign invaders such as bacteria or viruses, and is administered to people who have not yet had the ailment. Therapeutic vaccines, like the one Vaxil has developed, are given to sick people, and work more like a drug.
傳統疫苗幫助人體的免疫系統抵禦外來入侵者，例如細菌或病毒，並被實施在那些尚未有疾病的人身上。治療性的疫苗，像 Vaxil發展的，給予生病的人並且更像是一種藥物般工作。
Vaxil’s lead product, ImMucin, activates the immune system by “training” T-cells –– the immune cells that protect the body by searching out and destroying cells that display a specific molecule (or marker) called MUC1. MUC1 is typically found only on cancer cells and not on healthy cells. The T-cells don’t attack any cells without MUC1, meaning there are no side effects unlike traditional cancer treatments. More than 90% of different cancers have MUC1 on their cells, which indicates the potential for this vaccine.

“It’s a really big thing,” says Levy, a biotechnology entrepreneur who was formerly CEO for Biokine Therapeutics. “If you give chemo, apart from the really nasty side effects, what often happens is that cancer becomes immune [to it]. The tumor likes to mutate and develops an ability to hide from the treatment. Our vaccines are also designed to overcome that problem.”

For cancers in an advanced stage, treatments like chemo or surgery to remove a large tumor will still be needed, but if the cancer can be brought down to scale, the body is then able to deal with it, Levy explains. ImMucin is foreseen as a long-term strategy — a shot every few months, with no side effects — to stop the cancer from reoccurring after initial treatments, by ensuring that the patient’s own immune system keeps it under control.

In parallel, the company is also working on a vaccine that treats tuberculosis, a disease that’s increasing worldwide, including in the developed world, and for which the current vaccine is often ineffective and treatment is problematic.

Based in Ness Ziona, Vaxil was founded in 2006 by Dr. Lior Carmon, a biotechnology entrepreneur with a doctorate in immunology from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. In June, Vaxil signed a memorandum of understanding to merge its activities into Sheldonco, a company traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

http://unitedwithisrael.org/israel-develops-cancer-vaccine/

美成功研製防乳癌疫苗
2010-06-01

(綜合報道)(星島日報報道)美國科學家聲稱成功研發一種可以預防乳癌的疫苗，最快明年在人體上進行臨牀試驗。女士們只要接受注射，可以預防範上乳癌；而即使已經被驗出患上乳癌，接受注射後也可發揮治療作用。

帶頭進行這項研究的圖伊教授（Vincent Tuohy），形容這是一種革命性的疫苗，是醫學界研究對抗乳癌的一個重要里程碑。如果試驗證明是成功及有效的話，相信單是在英國，乳癌病例可望大幅減少七成，每年可救回八千多人的性命。

圖伊教授說，這種疫苗可以提供強大的保護作用，甚至有希望令這種困擾全球各地萬千婦女的惡疾完全消失。注射入人體後，藥力便會發揮功效，專門對付一種在大部分乳癌腫瘤內都找到的「乳蛋白」（Alphalactalbumin）。

這種疫苗可以增強人體免疫力，當乳蛋白出現時，馬上把它消滅，防止腫瘤形成。至於已經驗出患了乳癌的病人，注射了這種疫苗後，腫瘤增長的速度減慢一半。

圖伊教授和他的研究隊伍已在實驗室內，在一批經過基因改造、容易患上乳癌的老鼠身上進行試驗，並在《自然醫學》雜誌內發表研究報告。他們發現，注射了疫苗的老鼠，全部都不會患上癌症，但沒有注射疫苗的老鼠，十個月大時便患上乳癌。

即將於明年進行的人體試驗，主要對象是兩類，其一是患上末期乳癌、其他治療方法無效的婦女，以研究這種新疫苗能否令到腫瘤縮小。另一批對象是有遺傳因素、患乳癌風險高的年輕女子，看看疫苗能在她們身上發揮預防作用。

圖伊教授在美國俄亥俄州一間頂級醫院Cleveland Clinic內做研究工作，是人體免疫系統專家。他說：「乳癌是一種絕對可以預防的疾病。我們真的相信，注射這種疫苗可以預防乳癌，正如注射小兒麻痹症疫苗可以預防小兒麻痹症一樣。」圖伊教授相信疫苗可供給所有四十歲以上（患乳癌風險高的年齡）的婦女及因為遺傳關係而容易患此病的年輕女子。

其實，科學家一直都致力研究可以對抗各類癌症的疫苗，但面對許多障礙，尤其是擔心此類疫苗既對付癌細胞，同時又殺害健康的細胞，令病人雪上加霜。

不過，圖伊教授強調，這種新疫苗只會對付可能引致癌症的乳蛋白。唯一隱憂是，正常和健康的女士們在製造乳汁時，需要依賴乳蛋白。如果她們年輕時開始注射那種疫苗，將來可能無法用母乳餵哺孩子。不過，即使注射了疫苗，也不會影響女士們的生育能力。

研究人員說，其他種類的癌症，例如腸癌或前列腺癌，病人體內也找到類似的蛋白質，因此科學家也有機會製造同樣的疫苗，對付其他癌症。

http://news.sina.com.hk/cgi-bin/nw/show.cgi/12/1/1/1534163/1.html