pancreatic cancer vaccine research at Johns Hopkins

rechargeable

Has anyone read much about this? (The link doesn't work at this exact moment that I'm writing but it worked a little while ago and I think it's just down temporarily for maintenance.)

http://pathology2.jhu.edu/pancreas/vaccine.cfm

This sounds like it would only apply to people who have not yet undergone surgery for pancreatic cancer, and even then it seems the criteria are strict for who gets to be involved in the clinical trial.

Makes me wish I could turn back the clock a year and somehow get my dad to Baltimore. Just thought I should post it here on the off chance that someone here might be able to utilize it.

There's also a news article on it here:

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2005/11_15_05.html

According to the first link, the trial has been going on since October 2001, but I can't find any mention of what the longer-term survival rates have been since then.

christah · New User Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 8 Location: Maryland

I am going to check into this cause I am about an hour away from Baltimore and I have been down there for the past 4 months with my grandma she had a kidney transplant there. If you have anymore info on this please let me no. Thanks

rechargeable

That Johns Hopkins link is still broken.

From pancreatica.org, here is another good starter link on the subject of pancreatic cancer vaccine clinical trials, with instructions on what criteria to use in their search engine to find clinical trials throughout the country:

http://www.pancreatica.org/selectlinks.html

Apparently there are a lot of vaccine trials in the works, but who knows what kind of success their earlier-phase trials experienced. I don't know how to find that kind of information just yet. Much net research to be done here obviously.

rechargeable

Hey christah, you (and everyone) might be interested in this as well. I was reading through the archives of the pancreatic cancer mailing list on www.acor.org, and I came across this message from someone who has been actively looking into this sort of treatment:

---beginning of message----

Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 12:12:54 -0400
Reply-To: The Pancreatic Cancer Support & Information eCommunity
<PANCREAS-ONC@LISTSERV.ACOR.ORG>
Sender: The Pancreatic Cancer Support & Information eCommunity
<PANCREAS-ONC@LISTSERV.ACOR.ORG>
From: Dana Womack <dwspam@SPEECHTECHNOLOGIES.COM>
Subject: Vaccine Study
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Hi Nancy and those interested in vaccine trials,

Several weeks ago we took my father (stage IV inoperable PC) to Hopkins to be evaluated for a vaccine study. Hopkins has studied this treatment in patients who have had a Whipple procedure in the past, but in the fall of 2005, they opened this up to patients with inoperable PC. If you contact the Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, ask about trial J0501: "A Safety and Efficacy Trial of Lethally Irradiated Allogeneic Pancreatic Tumor Cells Transfected with the GM-CSF Gene in Combination with Erbitux (Cetuximab) for the Treatment of Advanced Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma".

Another interesting immune trial for pancreatic cancer is being conducted at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD, where they essentially to turn off the "off switch" to your immune system, to increase the number of "fighter cells" in your body and reduce the tumor's resistance to your natural immune system. You can find further information at cancer.gov. The name of the trial is "MDX-010 in Treating Patients With Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer That Cannot Be Removed By Surgery". Dr. Richard Royal is the principle investigator.

>From a scientific standpoint, both trials were very interesting, and the staff we met at both facilities were very kind. For other personal reasons, my dad is leaning towards no further trials at this point, but if you choose to participate in either of these, we would enjoy hearing about your experience.

Dana Womack

---end quote----

So it sounds like there's another possibility pretty close by to you.

It certainly seems like this would be a good mailing list for all pancreatic cancer victims to join. I just joined today in hopes that it'll help me find information for my dad's situation. You can do so at this link: http://listserv.acor.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ACOR.EXE?SUBED1=pancreas-onc&A=1

Wunderchu · Regular Joined: 21 Feb 2007 Posts: 29

the latest news on development of a vaccine seems promising, in my opinion: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/551111
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