Cancer cure hopes as Nobel Prize-winning oncologist shares new trial successes

22 February 2024 , 22:34

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By training the body to attack cancer cells, oncologist Catherine Wu may have found the key to curing cancer (Image: Getty Images)

A New York oncologist, who says she dreamed of curing cancer as a little girl, may be on the verge of a medical breakthrough as her "personalised cancer vaccines" have produced favorable results.

Dr. Catherine Wu, who runs a lab at Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, has reportedly spearheaded new research that she and her team is using to treat cancer. Dr. Wu's new cancer vaccines that have an added "personal" touch have been showing never-before-seen progress in the fight against cancer during clinical trials.

Every individual afflicted with cancer isn't the same, according to Wu. Everyone's cancer has a distinct genetical makeup, which prompted the New Yorker and her team to learn how to identify these mutations and prepare the body to fight them—and win.

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Dr Wu said she was inspired to pursue the field after watching a bone marrow transplant as an intern (Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF)

The oncologist team said the body could be turned into a weapon against cancer by taking the genetic data and using it to comprise the vaccine. The treatment is showing much promise as early stage trial results suggests Dr. Wu's new method could help heal even the most difficult of cancers, including pancreatic cancer and the other 200 forms of the terminal disease.

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The oncologist, who reportedly drew a picture of herself holding the "cure for cancer" in second grade, has already earned a Nobel Prize for her "decisive contributions" to the cancer research field.

Dr. Wu's impetus for her work began with an obsession with the immune system, which was sparked by a bone marrow transplant she watched first-hand as a medical intern. As she observed her superiors regenerate blood and the immune system to stomp out the cancer, her interest in cancer research skyrocketed.

The FDA typically requires vaccines to be tested on animals first, but Dr. Wu said it wasn't necessary (Getty Images)

"I had really formative academic experiences that made me quite interested in the power of immunology," she said. "There in front of my eyes were people who are being cured of their leukemia because of the mobilization of immune response."

The new technology made a big impression on the Food and Drug Administration, who initially demanded the vaccine be tested on animals first, which is the norm. Dr Wu said: "That room was packed. It was the first [trial] of its kind, and there were people from many different offices. Our argument was, 'This is personalized, whatever we do in an animal doesn’t really match the human — so why even go that route?'"

Mataeo Smith