Vaccine clinical trial against cancer

Australian scientists believe a vaccine now undergoing its first human trials could give hope to thousands of men diagnosed with potentially deadly prostate cancer.

The vaccine, developed over the past six years by the Mater Medical Research Institute in Brisbane, helps a patient's system identify its own cancerous cells and then destroy them.

Prostate cancer affects one in 11 Australian men but the odds shorten dramatically if there is a family history of the disease, which kills more than 2500 each year.

The director of the Brisbane institute, Professor Derek Hart, said the trial used a two-step procedure involving the extraction of dendritic cells, or specialised white blood cells responsible for controlling the body's immune response.

Hart discovered dendritic cells in 1979.

But he said it could take several more years of trials before the vaccine was widely available.

"If we are successful and there is suitable development via a commercial route, it could become a routine therapy in three to five years' time."

In the meantime, 12 patients with advanced prostate cancer will be assessed over a year for the phase one trial.

The vaccine could also have applications for other cancers, Hart said.

"In a sense this is generic so we can synthesise the proteins from breast cancer, multiple myeloma, melanoma and other tumours.

"The fundamental process we are working on of manufacturing the DCs [dendritic cells] from a patient can be applied to any patient."

The study has the thumbs up from a 72-year-old Rockhampton resident, Lex Irvine, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1999.

Irvine has undergone two vaccination sessions with no side effects.

"They are saying there's a very good chance it will be successful," he said.

"The alternatives I had weren't all that great."

The Brisbane institute also beat off competing medical research organisations to win $1.3 million in funding from the US Army for a similar prostate cancer vaccine, using a single-step procedure.

Clinical trials on humans are expected to begin later this year.