Melanoma and Vaccines

Another category if therapy for fighting melanoma is vaccines. Melanoma vaccines work in a similar manner as any vaccine works in your body: dead cells (in this case, dead cancer cells) are injected into your body. Since these cells are dead, they can't be harmful to you. However, your body "sees" the dead cells, recognizes them as being foreign, and remembers them for the future. Then, when your body encounters live cancers, it recognizes them as bad, and kills them.

Researchers have been experimenting with vaccines in the fight against melanoma for many years with results that vary. In some cases they have tried a generic vaccine (i.e. they use the same vaccine for any melanoma patient). In other cases, they use a specific vaccine (i.e. they take the patient's own tumor cells, create a vaccine from them, and inject it back into the patient's body).

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