The immune system can now be used to treat several types of cancer, and more than 2,500 immunotherapies are in development. Cancer vaccines have also started to show results in clinical trials, against melanoma, pancreatic cancer, and brain tumors, among others.
Among women with breast cancer, more than 95 percent of GLP-1 users were alive after five years, compared to 89.5 percent of non-users. Women who had taken a GLP-1 drug had about 25 percent lower risk of receiving a breast cancer diagnosis.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers. Fewer than 13 percent of those diagnosed survive more than five years. But after receiving a new mRNA vaccine, nearly 90 percent are still alive six years later.
All eight patients with multiple myeloma in two clinical trials had their cancer cells eliminated from the bone marrow. The method could make CAR-T treatment faster and cheaper. Several pharmaceutical companies are now investing in the technology, and more clinical trials are underway.
A blood test shows ability to identify over 50 different cancer types and can speed up diagnosis. More than half of the cancer forms were detected in early stages where treatment is more effective. Three-quarters of the detected cancer types currently lack screening programs.
Nearly 98 percent of patients with prostate cancer are alive at least five years after diagnosis in 2021.
One-third of 97 patients with incurable blood cancer became tumor-free after immunotherapy and remain healthy after five years. The treatment uses the patient's own white blood cells that are modified to attack the cancer. The cost is much lower than traditional medications.
Patients who developed an immune response from the personalized cancer vaccine have not yet experienced recurrence after more than three years of follow-up. The vaccine creates T cells that can live for up to 100 years and retain their ability to identify and fight cancer cells.
Patients who received a personalized cancer vaccine and developed an immune response lived longer without relapse. The T-cells created by the vaccine remained in the body for about 3 years and continued to fight cancer cells.