Researchers announced Saturday that combined cancer vaccines tailored to individual patient's needs have proved effective in treating various types of cancer.
Researchers from Kurume University, Hokkaido University and Yamaguchi University tested the combined vaccines on 71 patients suffering from colon, prostrate, lung and other types of cancer.
They used more than 30 types of vaccines to design individually tailored treatments for each patient and found that the combined vaccines were more effective than a single vaccine.
About half the patients improved to some extent in the tests, while one patient's cancer cells shrank by 76 percent. Cancer cells diminished by more than half in four patients and diminished slightly in six.
Many other patients experienced a slowdown of cancer cell growth and an alleviation of their pain and lethargy.
The effect of the combined vaccines was especially evident in patients with cervical and prostate cancer. Cancer cells shrank by 70 percent in two of the four patients with cervical cancer, they said.
The researchers started the tests last fall and compiled the data in April.