Cancer Stem Cell Vaccine

Abstract

The invention provides a method of making a vaccine for treating or preventing cancer in a patient or individual which comprises preparing the vaccine from cancer stem cells, from fractions, extracts, shed material or purified antigens derived from these cells, or from DNA or RNA coding for cancer stem cell associated antigens. In one embodiment of this invention, cancer stem cells are separated from unrelated cancer cell populations and then expended and cultured under conditions in which the cancer stem cells shed or release tumor antigens, and using the shed material or cancer stem cell antigens isolated from it as the vaccine. The invention further provides a vaccine and methods of treatment using the vaccine for any cancer is disclosed. Also disclosed are specific applications of this method to prepare such vaccines from antigens released or shed by cancer stem cells, and a particular application to make a shed, cancer stem cell, vaccine for breast cancer.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.