Training and Education

See and Treat

Science and Research

- Publications

- Ways to Escape

- Additives increase effectiveness

- AIDS and cervical cancer

- Different Types of HPV

- HPV Types

- Molecular Portrait

- Molecular Vaccination

- The current situation

- The development of cancer

- Towards a Preventive Medicine

- Vaccine as a Cure

Reports from the field

  Home > Activities supported by FCP Foundation > Science and Research > Towards a Preventive Medicine

Towards a Preventive Medicine

Cervical cancer is one of the very few forms of cancer in human beings that is partly caused by a virus. This increases the chance of preventing or curing this disease with an effective vaccine. Let's take a look in the lab of the creators of the vaccine against cervical cancer.

Vaccination against infections has been the most successful medical treatment of the 20th century. No other measure has had such an impact on public health, with so few side effects. Smallpox has been eradicated thanks to worldwide vaccination. It is obvious therefore that this approach is considered as a potentially preventive way to treat diseases like cancer. The chance to realize this dream has increased in recent decades due to the rapid developments in immunology.

The immune system has two important defense mechanisms against infections and other diseases. antibodies are specific proteins that recognize 'intruders' and contribute to the removal of bacteria and viruses from the body. The second defense mechanism is the ability of immune cells to detect strange components within the cells of the body and to destroy these deviant cells. it is mainly this second kind of resistance that offers opportunities for treating and preventing cancer. It is possible, in theory, to make those cytotoxic lymphocytes watchful for changes that typically occur in a cancer cell. Cancer cells that have these characteristics are subsequently cleared away by the immune system. With most cancers, the problem is to find immunological characteristics that are different in a cancer cell then in other, ordinary cells in the body. The chance of developing a successful vaccine is considerably larger for cancers that are caused by a virus, for example cervical cancer and some forms of intestinal cancer. For these cancer cells and pre-cancer cells contain foreign proteins. In Taiwan, where liver cancer is common due to chronic infection with Hepatitis B/C virus, it has been shown that vaccination against this virus offers protection against intestinal cancer.