HEPAVAC

Portrait of Professor Luigi Buonaguro, Coordinator of the European health research project HEPAVAC

Prof. Luigi Buonaguro

Scientific coordinator of HEPAVAC, based at Istituto Nazionale Tumori 'Fondazione Pascale' of Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, Naples, Italy

Research field

Cancer Immunotherapy

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Who?

“I've always been fascinated by the ability of preventive vaccines to halt human diseases. Vaccines can also be used to treat diseases, but this is not very effective yet. My goal is to give patients with devastating diseases such as liver cancer hope by improving the efficacy of therapeutic vaccines”, says Luigi Buonaguro.

Why?

Hepatocellular carcinoma is very common in both women and men. The prognosis is poor: only 5-6% of patients survive more than 5 years after diagnosis. Novel therapies are urgently required. Cancer vaccines – also called immunotherapeutic interventions- could represent an important turning point in HCC therapy.

What?

The HEPAVAC project aims to develop a therapeutic vaccine for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a common form of liver cancer. The clinical trial will include a personalised approach, taking into account genetic differences between patients. The ultimate aim is to increase life expectancy of early-stage HCC patients.

How?

HEPAVAC will determine the feasibility, safety and biological efficacy of the HCC vaccine in a clinical trial involving six European countries. The project has enabled a close collaboration between scientists and physicians from disciplines such as genomics, peptidomics, bioinformatics, systems biology and immunomonitoring.

It all depends on the liver

In the Picture
In the Picture
HEPAVAC project website American cancer society: what is liver cancer? National Cancer Institute of NIH: liver cancer Liver Cancer Incidence and Mortality Worldwide In Focus article 'Vaccines of the Third Kind' Cancer Vaccine Development for Hepatocellular Carcinoma flyer PDF versionPDF version
Image credits

Background image: HEPAVAC

Portrait of the project coordinator: HEPAVAC

Timeline (in chronological order): 1891: Hospital for Special Surgery Archives; 1909: Hata Memorial Museum, Shimane; 2003: Wikimedia commons; 2008: Microsoft images