Page 1 - Spring 2018 Newsletter Final Digital

AD VANCING C ANCER TRE AT MENT THR OUGH C OMP AR ATIVE ONC OL OG Y RESE AR CH
FLINT ANIMAL CANCER CENTER

NE WSLETTER | Spring 2018

HAVE WE FOUND

THE ANSWER TO
PREVENTING

CANCER?

Dr. Doug Thamm will lead a new cancer prevention vaccine clinical trial.

MALLPOX, A DEVASTATING DISEASE FOR CENTURIES, Key to Johnston’s work are tumor antigens (proteins that are
was eradicated in 1980, thanks to a vaccine. Vaccines recognized as foreign and targeted by the immune system) that
Sfor polio, whooping cough, and influenza are a few of are common among different cancer types. Johnston’s lab has
the reasons that our lifespans have nearly doubled since the discovered a potentially high-impact way of identifying these
beginning of the 20th century. A newer vaccine for chicken pox common tumor antigens; these make up the key components of
has dramatically reduced the number of cases of that disease. So, their vaccine.
why not a cancer vaccine? Seems logical, right? The new vaccine, called a multivalent frameshift peptide
The challenge: All cancers are different. For decades, vaccine, was developed by Johnston and his team. The vaccine
conventional wisdom has suggested that a general, preventive has been already tested for efficacy in mice and shown to be safe
vaccine would not be possible because all cancers are unique. in dogs.
For the last 10 years, however, Dr. Stephen Johnston, director of
the Biodesign Center for Innovations in Medicine at Arizona State NEXT STEPS
University, and his team, including Dr. Luhui Shen, senior science
director, vaccine project, and Penny Gwynne, research laboratory To move the vaccine from the lab to the clinic, Johnston
manager, have been working on a one-size-fits-all cancer partnered with Dr. Doug Thamm, a veterinary oncologist and
prevention vaccine. director of clinical research at the Flint Animal Cancer Center.
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