New Trial Will Examine Potential Breast Cancer Vaccine
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The study is still in its early stages and is currently testing 18 to 24 women who have already been diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer.
Researchers are developing a potentially groundbreaking vaccine that could protect women from getting an aggressive and deadly form of breast cancer known as triple-negative.
The clinical vaccine trial led by doctors at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center will jumpstart the immune system and target any tumors that produce a certain protein called alpha-Lactalbumin, that should only be present while a woman is lactating.
"It was a matter of luck and tenacity in going through databases and looking for proteins," Dr. Vincent Tuohy, an immunologist and a co-investigator on the trial, told CBS Evening News about discovering the key protein for the vaccine.
Tuohy told CBS that the vaccine is "prophylactic," meaning cancer-preventing, and targets six different pathogens unlike other breast cancer treatments.
The study is still in its early stages and is currently testing 18 to 24 women who have already been diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer. Triple negative refers to a rare type of breast cancer that is negative for three types of proteins: estrogen, progesterone, and HER2. Nearly 13 in every 100,000 women are diagnosed each year, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Doses will be given once every two weeks over the course of 84 days, and participants will be monitored closely for side-effects.
Dr. G. Thomas Budd, the principal investigator on the trial, told CBS that they want the vaccine to move to the "prevention setting" in hopes of having an even greater impact.
Budd said in an interview with the Cleveland Clinic that the development of the vaccine could take years but if proven successful and safe, doctors can start vaccinating healthy women who are at a higher risk of triple-negative breast cancer.
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