Researchers are currently testing a vaccine that improves the chances of recovery of patients with ocular tumors by stimulating their immune response.

Choroidal melanoma is the most common ocular malignancy. If it is not treated quickly enough, metastases develop and can cause death. Researchers at the University Hospital of Erlangen, Germany, have developed a vaccine to prevent the development of metastases.

Dendritic cells typically trigger the immune response after recognizing a threat. However, in cancer patients, the tumor often blocks the immune response. The new vaccine contains custom dendritic cells and triggers the immune response, which delays or prevents the formation of metastases.

Right now, 200 German patients involved in the study of the vaccine.