FRIDAY, July 3 (HealthDay News) -- The new vaccine vitespen
didn't increase recurrence-free survival among kidney cancer
patients who'd had surgery, say U.S. researchers.
Surgery is standard treatment for kidney cancer, but many
patients are at risk of cancer recurrence because there is no
effective adjuvant treatment, according to background information
in the study by Dr. Christopher Wood, of the M.D. Anderson Cancer
Center in Houston, and colleagues.
For this study, 818 kidney cancer patients who'd had surgery
were divided into two groups. One group (409) received vitespen
once a week for four weeks, then every two weeks until vaccine
depletion. The other 409 patients were kept under observation.
The final analysis of 361 patients in the vitespen group and 367
patients in the observation group found no significant difference
in recurrence-free survival. But an analysis of a subgroup of
patients with early-stage kidney cancer showed a 15.2 percent rate
of recurrence among those who received vitespen and a 27 percent
rate of recurrence among patients kept under observation.
While this wasn't a statistically significant difference, the
researchers said the improvement in recurrence-free survival among
patients with early-stage cancer who received the vaccine warrants
further investigation.
The study was published online this week in
The Lancet.
In an accompanying comment, Dr. James Yang, of U.S. National
Cancer Institute, noted that the manufacturers of vitespen have
focused on one possible positive outcome of this study, rather than
the overall negative results.
"Such practices are akin to shooting the arrow first and being
permitted to draw the target afterwards," he wrote.
The field of cancer immunotherapy is weakened when some
researchers and vaccine companies are reluctant to accept the
results of randomized clinical trials, Yang said.
"Commercially driven efforts that spin or obfuscate the
conclusions of such a trial should be vigorously resisted because
such efforts severely erode its value," he concluded.
More information
The American Cancer Society has more about
kidney cancer.
