Early trials begin for experimental implant that trains immune system to kill melanoma cells

An experimental vaccine implant to treat skin cancer has begun early trials in humans, as part of a growing effort to train the immune system to fight tumours.

The approach, which was shown to work in lab mice in 2009, involves placing a fingernail-sized sponge under the skin, where it reprograms a patient’s immune cells to find cancerous melanoma cells and kill them.

It is rare to get a new technology tested in the laboratory and moved into human clinical trials so quickly, said Glenn Dranoff, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and part of the research team at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University — via redwolf.newsvine.com