By: Timothy Xia
What Happened?
Cancer has been a big problem in the world and there is still no way to battle it. Finding a way to do that is almost impossible, but Dr Catherine Wu still managed to. She got the idea after seeing a video about how to cure a disease called Leukemia. She decided to create a vaccine that would reset the immune system so that it could fight off the cancer cells. She started by analyzing the different cancer characteristics, because each person has different genes so each person’s cancer is unique. She focused on mutations in the tumor cells when the tumor grows. She created a vaccine that injects dead cancer tumor cells so the immune system can remember it and when it comes again, it will know that it is a cancer cell.
What was the Impact?
After she was finished, she tested it on six patients with advanced Melanoma, a type of skin cancer. All of them were put on a seven shot course. In 2017, four of them showed no signs of cancer recurrence. This was a good sign for Dr. Wu. By 2021, all of the patients were said to be cancer free. This was great news for Dr. Wu and her workers who helped create the vaccine. The idea of finding a way to cure cancer has been going on for centuries. This was known as, “ a fantastic discovery,”(from CNN).
What happened after?
After hearing the news, everyone was relieved that there is a cure to cancer, but some still believe that this might not always work, including some doctors and researchers. But now, it was proven that it worked every single time. Dr. Wu said, “I was really surprised that this would work and everyone was very excited,”(From Google Search). In 2017, Dr. Wu was awarded the Sjoberg reward for her actions. The prize also comes with 1 million dollars($900,000 for future cancer research and $100,000 as a reward).
Sources From:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/20/health/cancer-vaccines-catherine-wu-scn/index.html