Vaccine may complement conventional treatment for chronic...( reduction of the residual disease and ...),Health

"Studies that focused on improving the assessment of residual disease after vaccination, including larger numbers of patients as well as longer follow-up are under way to assess definitively the role of this vaccine against leukaemia."

In an accompanying commentary Saswati Chatterjee and Dr K.K. Wong (City of Hope National Medical Centre, California, USA) and colleagues comment that although almost identical to other previous studies on this vaccine, Bocchia's research is the first to show a clinical response.

Dr Chatterjee concludes: "Given the ease of administration, lack of toxicity, and early promise of efficacy, vaccine development against the fusion protein or other CML specific antigens appears to be a reasonable avenue for further investigation. In the meantime, we will eagerly await the results of disease free-survival in the vaccinated group and confirmatory studies by other investigators in the field."

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Contact: Joe Santangelo
j.santangelo@elsevier.com
1-212-633-3810
Lancet
17-Feb-2005