A vaccine has been developed to help prevent the recurrence of prostate cancer ( cells pictured ) A vaccine has been developed to help prevent the recurrence of prostate cancer , and potentially other cancers . It 's designed to teach the immune system to recognise compounds found in prostate cancer cells and is being given to men who have already been treated for the cancer . The vaccine is made from pieces of a protein called TARP that 's found in about 95 per cent of prostate cancers . Animal studies have shown that the protein can effectively stimulate the immune system to attack the cancer . The thinking is that the vaccine will prime the immune system so that it creates antibodies when it detects TARP-related cancers . Then , should the cancer reappear , the antibodies will be dispatched to attack the malignant cells . Those antibodies , along with other immune cells , can then destroy cancer cells without harming non-cancer cells , so minimising side-effects . It is initially being tested as a way to treat cancer that has returned but , if successful , could be used as a first line treatment for prostate and potentially breast cancer in the future . TARP is also found in about 50 per cent of breast cancers . Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK , with more than 40,000 new cases diagnosed every year . In many cases the cancer develops slowly and patients may simply be monitored rather than actively treated . But in cases where the cancer is more aggressive , even after treatment there is a high risk of recurrence . Researchers at the U.S. National Cancer Institute are using the vaccine on 70 men who have been treated for the cancer , but whose PSA is rising again ( posed by model ) Once they have been treated , men are monitored with regular blood tests that check for a protein called prostate specific antigen or PSA , which can indicate cancer . The time it takes for the PSA reading to double is called the PSADT . Men with a PSADT of less than three months are at high risk of dying from prostate cancer . Around 11,000 men in the UK die from the disease a year . Researchers at the U.S. National Cancer Institute are using the vaccine on 70 men who have been treated for the cancer , but whose PSA is rising again . Men on the trial will have a PSADT greater than three months and less than 15 . The trial will last nearly two years , and men will be given six injections of the vaccine or a placebo during that time . The number of men in Britain with , or who have had , prostate cancer . Professor Raj Persad , urology consultant at the Bristol Urological Institute , says that the idea of boosting the body 's own immune defences is an 'excellent strategy ' for preventing a recurrence of the disease . 'Toxicity studies will have to be done , and then clinical effectiveness studies are needed , and it will need to be compared to existing treatments , ' he says . 'But despite these time constraints , the research looks very promising indeed and we must watch this space . ' Meanwhile , the MMR vaccine may be a new way to tackle problem warts . Researchers have found that injecting the vaccine into warts that have resisted other treatments leads to six out of ten disappearing . Warts are caused by infection with the human papilloma virus ( HPV ) . Although they can clear up without treatment within one to two years , about a third or more do not resolve and may multiply and enlarge , making treatment more difficult . In the new study , researchers used the jab on 65 patients who 'd had warts for between two and 15 years . They had an average of three treatments . In 63 per cent of cases , the warts disappeared , while 6 per cent showed no response . The remainder had some improvement . Side-effects included pain during injection , itching and flu-like symptoms . The warts recurred in only two patients , according to the researchers from Zagazig University , Egypt , whose findings are published in the International Journal of Dermatology . The theory is that the vaccine stimulates the immune system , which then spots and attacks the HPV virus and the warts it had previously overlooked .
Vaccine is made from pieces of a protein called TARP . It's the same stuff that makes up your blood, and it helps protect you against infections like HIV / AIDS. Studies show the protein can teach the immune system to attack cancer .