Hormel Institute researchers work to develop melanoma vaccine

AUSTIN, Minn. (KTTC) – A promising new weapon in the fight against melanoma, and it’s being developed at the Hormel Institute in Austin.

A team of scientists have published research that could lead to the development of a vaccine for melanoma.

Melanoma is the deadliest type of skin cancer, killing 9,000 people in the United States each year.

Dr. George Aslanidi and a team of researchers have developed and tested a vaccine that was successful in treating a model that mimics human melanoma. He says the unique vaccine design helps the body to use its own immune system to recognize and kill cancer cells.

“The good thing about immune response, it can track down single tumor cells and kill them anywhere in the body. So, a surgeon cannot find one cell hiding somewhere in the lung, but the immune system can, and it will track it down and kill it,” he said.

Dr. Aslanidi said he hopes a similar approach to melanoma treatment can eventually be used to treat any type of cancer. The research has been funded by community-funded grants from Paint the Town Pink and the 5th District Eagles Cancer Telethon on KTTC.

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