A vaccine designed to target a specific protein on breast cancer cells can safely incite regression in early-stage breast cancer patients, according to a new study published in Clinical Cancer Research.
The protein targeted by the vaccine is called HER2 and is overexpressed in 20 to 25 percent of all breast cancer tumors. To determine the efficacy and safety of the vaccine, researchers performed a clinical trial in 54 women with early-stage breast cancer expressing the HER2 protein. Vaccines were tailored to the individual by isolating dendritic cells — immune system messenger cells — from each patient's blood and exposing them to HER2. Eighty percent of patients experienced an immune system response to the vaccine and 13 experienced a pathologic complete response (the absence of disease in the breast). These patients also experienced an immune response within their local sentinel lymph nodes.
"These results suggest that vaccines are more effective in disease called ductal carcinoma in situ [cancer that begins in the milk ducts], hereby warranting further evaluation in DCIS or other minimal disease settings, and the local regional sentinel lymph node may serve as a more meaningful immunologic endpoint," said study author Brian J. Czerniecki, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Breast Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla.
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