Experimental Vaccine Uses Nanoparticles to Target Protein Key to Cancer Spread

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed an experimental vaccine that could prevent the spread of metastatic cancers to the lungs. The key ingredients of the vaccine are nanoparticles-fashioned from bacterial viruses-that have been engineered to target a protein known to play a central role in cancer growth and spread. In mice, the vaccine significantly reduced the spread of metastatic breast and skin cancers to the lungs. It also improved the survival rate in mice with metastatic breast cancer after surgical removal of the primary tumor.