
“I think it’s essential that people keep signing up to these type of trials to push research forward.”
This trial was looking at a vaccine called TroVax to see if it could help the immune system to recognise cancer cells. The trial was for people with bowel cancer that had spread to other parts of the body (metastatic bowel cancer).
The immune system plays an important part in our defence against disease by finding and killing foreign cells, such as bacteria or viruses. One problem is that cancer cells are very similar to normal cells. So the immune system fails to spot them.
In this trial, the researchers were looking at a vaccine called TroVax to see if it could alert the immune system to a protein found on the surface of bowel cancer cells. The idea was that the immune system would then recognise the cancer cells and attack them.
The aims of the trial were to see if
The results of the trial showed that TroVax can cause an immune response without too many side effects.
The trial recruited 22 people with bowel cancer that had spread. Everybody had 3 injections of TroVax. If they responded to the vaccine, some people had 2 more injections a few weeks later.
The researchers looked at 4 different doses of the vaccine and had results for 17 people
The researchers found that TroVax was safe to use at all 4 doses they tested. They suggested that as TroVax caused an immune response in most people taking part, it should be studied in clinical trials for other cancers.
We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists () and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Professor Robert Hawkins
Oxford Biomedica
Freephone 0808 800 4040
“I think it’s essential that people keep signing up to these type of trials to push research forward.”