The same should hold true for cancer immunotherapy.

WSJ: New Cancer Drugs Use Body's Own Defenses

Hailed several years ago as a breakthrough immunotherapy for prostate cancer, its Provenge vaccine seemed likely to win FDA approval five years ago until an unusual turn of events prompted the agency to issue a delay.

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Taken together, the findings are provoking excitement among researchers and the drug industry that immunotherapy has finally arrived as a viable cancer-fighting strategy.

WSJ: New Cancer Drugs Use Body's Own Defenses

Researchers prefer the term immunotherapy because it would treat, not prevent, cancer.

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"We're already using the fact that 5t4 is found in cancer cells, but not in normal tissue, to design immunotherapy against it and are testing two such systems in clinical trials, " said Professor Stern.

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Though the studies are small, the results reflect rapidly growing conviction that immunotherapy is the next big front in the war on cancer.

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After Rovshen was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002, Shaw watched her friend suffer through a long procession of chemotherapy, radiation therapy and immunotherapy.

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