Closing In on the Cancer Vaccine After long frustration, researchers are finally learning how to enlist the immune system to destroy tumors. More than a century ago doctors noticed a curious coincidence: Cancer patients’ tumors sometimes shriveled after the patients contracted bacterial infections. That inspired the idea of cancer vaccines, which would stir the body’s immune system to attack tumor cells as if they were germs, replicating what seemed to have happened in the lucky patients. Unlike the familiar preventive shots we get to ward off the measles, flu, and other infectious ills, cancer vaccines would.

PROSTATE CANCER, Issues and statistics THE BIG NEWS in prostate cancer doesn’t concern advances in surgery, medications or radiation therapy, although those are all out there for men. Rather, it’s the quandary over when and if to start PSA blood tests to screen for the disease and what to do about the tumors that early detection uncovers.Already a can of worms for men and their doctors, these decisions took on a new urgency last month when results from two major studies showed that routine PSA blood…

Cancer calendar: Fundraisers, info PHILADELPHIA Sandy Sprint: Annual 5K walk/run, hosted by the Sandy Rollman Ovarian Cancer Foundation, to raise awareness about ovarian cancer & support research to find a cure, Saturday, Fairmount Park; www.sandyovarian.org.Relay For Life: Fun-filled overnight event to celebrate survivorship & raise money for research & programs for the American Cancer Society. Most events held in May or June. For dates & locations in your area, visit…

Cancer Update Last month’s global report on cancer estimates that approximately 45 percent of colon cancer cases and 38 percent of breast cancer cases in the United States are preventable through making changes in our diet, physical activity and weight maintenance.The overall message of the report, Policy and Action for Cancer Prevention, published by World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research, is that society and individuals need to make public health, and cancer.