Article: SKIN CANCER TREATMENT `Vaccine' alerts immune system Melanoma drug, designed to boost response, nears final stage of FDA approval

A new treatment designed to teach a patient's immune system to recognize and fight melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, is being tested at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and other cancer centers around the country.

Mark Albertini, assistant professor of medicine at UW-Madison, is testing the treatment, a kind of cancer vaccine.

Conventional vaccines, such as those given in childhood, work in the absence of disease; cancer vaccines work in the presence of it. But the mechanism is the same both involve injecting a substance called an antigen that is produced by the disease. That "wakes up" the immune system into recognizing the threat and producing antibodies to fight the ...

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