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New lung cancer vaccine shows promise

48-year-old Charlie Harb has stage four lung cancer, a tough disease to beat. So after chemo helped stabilize the tumor, he entered a study of a new vaccine, hoping to stop the tumor from growing again. "So far so good," says Charlie. "I guess we'll find out at the, in two months, the scans, if everything is stable or shrinking, then we'll continue with the vaccine."

The vaccine is made of lung cancer cells. But these are modified so they no longer produce a protein they use to blindfold the immune system. Dr. Lyudmila Bazhenova, M.D. says, "The reason why you develop lung cancer, or cancer in general, is because your immune system failed to recognize that cancer. So we need to change it. We need to re-teach the immune system to do their job."

Doctors at the University of California, San Diego treated the very first patient with the new therapy - now in its final testing phase. The findings up to now show that patients who receive the vaccine, called lucanix, live longer than patients who receive a placebo.

Side effects include pain and redness at the injection site. No big deal to patients like Charlie, who says compared to the side effects of chemo, it's very hopeful.