A Breast Cancer Vaccine on the Horizon

Are we closer to getting a vaccine for breast cancer? Yes, if you consider the implications of some research results that hit the press yesterday: an experimental vaccine administered on a small group of women who were HER-2 positive reduced their risk of death by one half.

Important caveat: the study (conducted by the U.S. Military, at the Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, TX) was not deemed statistically significant because of the small number of participants (163 to be exact).

However, the findings are strong enough to ensure that the biotech firm Apthera assists the center to conduct a larger trial.

The reason I get jazzed about these research trials is because each research trial brings new hope … new hope that we will one day get to that cure.

A vaccine for breast cancer — imagine? A vaccine, which works to trigger the body’s immune system to fight breast cancer, seems possible when I read research results like these.

A little more about HER-2 positive status … only about 1/4 of all breast cancer patients have tumors that are HER-2 positive. Tumors that test positive for the HER-2 mutation exhibit high levels of HER-2 protein; typically, these tumors are aggressive. Some women with an over-expression of HER-2 have been able to benefit from Genentech’s drug Herceptin, which stops the growth of HER-2 positive cancer cells.

But these women, living with an aggressive cancer, in particular, need hope.

I think this is it. Hope … in the form of research.

Any HER2+ survivors/readers out there? How do you feel about this research?

(Image: Karen Lynch)