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The massive development saw scientists take an immunotherapy drug and give it a chemical boost to rid mice of melanoma – a malignant tumor associated with skin cancer.
Not only has the drug helped fight cancer, but the results show that it could help prevent relapse in the future.
A group of scientists from the Scripps Research Institute in California and the Southwestern Medical Center at the University of Texas began the study by analyzing 100,000 compounds that would serve as a reminder for an anti-cancer drug called anti-PD-L1.
The drug is designed as a kind of tranquilizer for cancer cells, which means it's impossible to avoid the body's immune system.
Eventually, scientists discovered a chemical called Diprovocim – a compound that binds to proteins to help strengthen the immune system.
The scientists then took groups of mice with aggressive melanomas – and some received the anti-PD-L1 drug as well as an injection of Diprovocim while some received only the first one.
The researchers found after 54 days that the group that had just received the drug had a survival rate of zero percent, but for those who had received anti-PD-L1 and Diprovocim, they all survived.
Dale Boger, of the Scripps Research Institute, who participated in the study, said, "This co-therapy has produced a comprehensive response – a curative response – in the treatment of melanoma.
"Just like a vaccine can cause the body to fight external pathogens, this vaccine causes the immune system to attack the tumor.
"It was exciting to see the vaccine work simultaneously with an anti-cancer immunotherapy such as anti-PD-L1."
After the trial, the scientists tried to restore the melanoma in the mice and "that would not take," Boger said.
He added: "The animal is already vaccinated against that."
A statement from Scripps said, "In the future, the researchers plan to do other pre-clinical testing with this vaccine design and study how it works in combination with d." other cancer treatments.
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