The following is a transcript of a report by medical editor Marilyn Brooks that first aired Jan. 7, 2008, on WTAE Channel 4 Action News at 5 p.m.

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Fighting cancer might some day soon be as simple as getting a shot.

Researchers around the nation are working on a vaccine and one shows promise in ovarian trials.

The idea of a vaccine against ovarian cancer is being tested in women, and some doctors said they are encouraged by the early results.

When ovarian cancer struck Christine Sable five years ago, she decided to travel from Europe to the tropics, with frequent stops in Buffalo, N.Y., to take part in a clinical trial to see if a simple vaccine can keep her cancer free.

"This was something that I could personally do to feel useful and to help move medicine forward," she said. "Because whether it worked for me or not, someone would learn something from it."

Researchers are learning the vaccine might be an effective approach. In a phase one trial, doctors gave it to women who had been treated for advanced ovarian cancer. Of the 22 women who received the vaccine, 18 showed a positive immune response.

"It's almost like getting a flu shot," said Dr. Kunle Odunsi of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. "When you get a flu vaccine, you are training your body's immune system to recognize and kill the flu virus if you get infected."

Researchers hope to train the immune system to detect and kill cancer cells. They said the vaccine seems to work, because its made from a protein found only in men and is similar to those in cancer cells.

When a woman's immune system detects the protein, it kills it.

"That is going after that small number of left over cells that, we all know, if you just leave them to their own devices, they're going to grow back," said Dr. Kevin Lee of the Roswell Institute.

Sable faced an 80 percent chance of recurrence. But nearly five years after diagnosis, she remains cancer free.

Doctors are now going through the second phase of the trial, testing an even more powerful form of the vaccine. If they continue to see success, they said the vaccine might be on the market in the next five years.

Meanwhile, there are other vaccines being tested with good results not only on ovarian cancer but prostate, breast and colon cancers as well.

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