Health Issue: Cancer In Tracks

Now, a jab to stop cancer in tracks London: In what could be called a major break through, scientists claim to have created a jab which can cure even the most deadly cancers - by shrinking tumours and stopping them from spreading.        The injection, which is being tested on patients with breast, pancreatic, cervical and ovarian cancers, could hit the market in as little as five years, its creator Prof Ray Iles of Middlesex University said.        The drug, which is being developed in conjunction with US firm Celidex Therapeutics, revs up the immune system, directing it to destroy Human chorionic gonadotropin or hCG which is made by some breast, bowel, ovarian, cervical tumours andaround half of bladder and pancreatic cancers.         The drug shrinks tumours and, crucially, stops them from spreading, or metastasising, the 'Daily Mail' reported. Prof Iles sadid: "Not only are you casuing the cancer to shrink, it is not metastasising. If you come in with chemotherapy and surgery, you've got a cure."          Tests on animals have already had "extremely good" results and preliminary trils on people show it to be safe.The jab is now being given to 60 men and women newly diagnosed with bladder cancer.          Further, larger trials will be needed before it is deemed suitable for wide fertility-spread use. Professor Iles said: "the vaccine has the potential to help us make rapid advances in the treatment of this invasive cancer." The destruction of hCG would also mean the jab acted women's fertility should return to normal within a year after completing treatment.