Taking a Jab at Cancer

Combined with drugs, vaccines against tumors may finally be working

Imagine a patient getting a vaccine injection in the doctor’s office—but not to ward off a virus or a bacterium that causes smallpox, measles, or any other infectious disease. This vaccine is for cancer, specifically for a tumor already growing within the patient’s body. The treatment, perhaps in combination with others, is intended to train the patient’s immune system to recognize and kill malignant cells.