The vaccines most people are familiar with are used to activate the immune system so that it learns to attack a disease causing organism before it can establish itself and cause an infection. There are new types of vaccines being developed that are called therapeutic vaccines. Following is a brief answer to the question ‘What is a therapeutic vaccine?’.
Therapeutic vaccines are designed to stimulate the immune system so that it acts to treat certain disease or slow their progress – such as for cancer, HIV, viral hepatitis and cholera, for example. These types of vaccines are still in the experimental phase but some have been approved for use. Unlike traditional vaccines which are used to prevent against infection, therapeutic vaccines are used after a patient is already suffering from a disease with the aim of mounting a stronger, disease-specific response by the immune system.