A Vaccine against Epstein-Barr virus, which causes glandular fever and is implicated in several cancers, will start trials in people within a year. The researchers in Manchester who developed the vaccine hope that it may one day prove a cost-effective way of preventing cancers that currently kill tens of thousands worldwide. The vaccine is based on a genetically engineered form of the virus’s envelope protein.
Gordon McVie, scientific director of the Cancer Research Campaign, which has funded the research, warned that the vaccine is still experimental.
Epstein-Barr virus is a common herpes virus that infects up to 90 per cent of the world’s population. In central Africa, it is linked with Burkitt’s lymphoma, a children’s cancer. In China, it is linked with a cancer of the nasal cavity that kills 50 000 a year. The virus is thought to combine with various environmental triggers to cause the different cancers.
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