What have you heard or experienced with Vaccine Treatments?

What have you heard or experienced with Vaccine Treatments?

Hi everyone, this is my first post on the forum. My dad has Stage IV Metastatic Melanoma. I am seeking advice on new treatments that have shown results of improved quality of life and survival outcomes. I have done some background research of my own on treatments and this is what I have found so far:

It seems that one of the most common methods of treatment of malignant metastatic melanoma is chemotherapy with Dacarbazine, or DTIC. It is a cytotoxic drug and one of the few drugs approved by the FDA for treating cancer¹.

There have been studies on the use of Temozolomide, or TMZ, which has shown efficacy at least equivalent to DTIC in patients with melanoma. But overall, TMZ showed an advantage in terms of improvement in quality of life¹.

Another area of treatment focuses more on the immune system. One study MD Anderson Cancer Center researched a three drug combination of cisplatin, vinblastine, and DTIC. The Phase II and III trials suggested a benefit of cisplatin when added to DTIC for patients with the metastatic disease¹.

Combination therapy with Oblimersen sodium and DTIC has shown a significant survival benefit¹.

Biochemotherapy is another area of treatment that has been investigated. Overall, this method of treatment has indicated improved response rates, but not in survival rates. One study by Eton et al investigated CVD (combination treatment with cisplatin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine) vs CVD with intravenous IL-Z and subcutaneous IFN-d¹.

The research on vaccines as a treatment option are of particular interest to me. So far, no vaccines have been approved for prevention or treatment of cancer. However, the use of allogeneic (involving cells that are genetically dissimilar) whole-cell-based vaccines has become more popular². Up to date, the most successful vaccine has been Canvaxin, which contains three irradiated (being exposed to radiation), allogeneic melanoma cell lines between them expressed over 20 different melanoma antigens (toxic/foreign substance that induces an immune response)².

Even though it seems that there has been increasing interest to research vaccines for cancer treatments, there has not been exceedingly substantial progress. This is in part due to investing, but also taking into consideration the high production costs associated with vaccines. Some studies have been halted in later phases of clinical testing because the results have not shown improved survival outcomes². On the other hand, a decent amount of preclinical studies focusing on immunotherapeutics, including vaccines have been shown to enhance anticancer immune responses². The numerous studies of vaccines seem to have varying results, due to the altering the constituents of the vaccine itself.

I have just begun my research on new treatment options, but does anyone have any suggestions on studies to look into or any clinical trials that my dad could participate in? In addition, do you know of anyone who has participated in any vaccine trials? Thanks!