VIENNA - German cancer specialists have made significant progress in the development of a vaccine against renal cell carcinoma, with first test results looking promising, it was reported on Monday.

The first study of the vaccine was conducted on 19 patients with renal cell carcinoma so advanced that other forms of therapy were no longer effective, with 10 of the patients completing the full series of vaccinations.

"Seven of these patients are still alive and have had their disease stabilized for up to 65 weeks," Ingo Schmidt-Wolf of the Center for Integrated Oncology in Bonn, Germany, told the 2012 European Society for Medical Oncology in Vienna.

He added that quality of life for the patients improved during the course of the treatment, and that side-effects were relatively minor.

For two of the patients, the disease came to a still-stand within 12 weeks, and upon continued administration of the vaccine experienced remission and eventually stabilization.

Phase II of the clinical study is currently planned and will be aimed at patients for whom a first or second treatment strategy has lost effectiveness and where the vaccine is a further option.