DUBBO dollars are helping in the development of a cancer vaccine to kill off normal tissue that supports and helps deadly tumours grow.
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Professor Ross Davey of the Bill Walsh Cancer Research Centre spoke to a dinner crowd in Dubbo last night, offering thanks for donations and bequests in support of its work.
He also shared research findings and laboratory results that give real hope of a cheaper and less arduous cure for solid cancers.
For about six years the centre has been intent on finding a way for the immune system to better fight and defeat cancerous lumps.
Previous efforts by others to pitch them against each other have failed, prompting Professor Davey and the centre’s team to try something new.
Knowing that abnormal cells are targeted by the immune system, they have set about removing proteins from tumours, turning them into a vaccine and injecting them into animals, largely rats and dogs already cancer-ridden.
To the dedicated researchers’ delight, they are seeing the animals’ immune systems attacking the normal tissue supporting tumours in numerous ways, including the provision of nutrients.
“We actually now have proteins that we think are on the outside of the normal cells that surround the cancer cells and we’ve re-educated the immune system to knock cells that are wearing these proteins out, which are those very cells that are helping the cancer to continue to grow,” Professor Davey said.
The research is applicable to all solid cancers, but is focusing on brain cancer, mesothelioma, which is an asbestos-induced type of lung cancer, head and neck cancer, and to a lesser extent breast cancer, reports the professor.
The centre’s consultant, and former director of 30 years, yesterday advised of further animal trials and his hope that human testing of the vaccine would begin before the end of 2012.
Professor Davey believes the centre is on the cusp of a cure.
“We want to be able to make a difference,” he said.
Last night’s dinner at the Western Star Hotel was organised by the Rotary Club of Dubbo Macquarie, which donates money raised from its annual Michael Egan Memorial Book Fair to the Bill Walsh Research Centre, located within Royal North Shore Hospital.
A well-respected Dubbo accountant, Mr Egan was treated at the hospital before his death from cancer in 2007.
Professor Davey reports that Dubbo residents have and continue to make individual donations after being admitted to the hospital.
The proceeds of the dinner went to the centre.
The third annual book fair is set to be held in St Brigid’s hall on May 12 and 13.