Mayo Clinic researchers building melanoma vaccine to combat skin cancer

Mayo Clinic researchers have trained mouse immune systems to eradicate skin cancer from within, using a genetic combination of human DNA from melanoma cells and a cousin of the rabies virus. The strategy, called cancer immunotherapy, uses a genetically engineered version of the vesicular stomatitis virus to deliver a broad spectrum of genes derived from melanoma cancer cells directly into tumors. In early studies, 60 percent of tumor-burdened mice were cured in fewer than three months and with minimal side effects. According to a researchers Richard Vile and Jose Pulido, this new technique will help to identify a whole new set of genes that encode antigens that are important in stimulating the immune system to reject cancer.