Vaccine targets ovarian-cancer cells

By using a vaccine patterned after a protein fragment found on some malignant cells, scientists have been able to direct an immune response against ovarian cancer.

The protein fragment, called NY-ESO-1, appears on the surface of tumor cells in about 40 percent of ovarian cancer cases, and also in some other cancers.

In the new study, scientists at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y.,