A breast cancer vaccine in Phase II clinical testing significantly reduced reoccurrence and mortality in early stage patients with a high expression of protein HER2-neu.
HER2-neu patients represent 25% of all breast cancer patients.
The vaccine lowered mortality by 100 percent in women with breast cancer and low or intermediate expression of HER2/neu.
Current treatments for HER2-neu expressing patients are limited to chemotherapy and surgery.
Regrettably the study design was insufficiently powered to generate a statistically significant result, that is, the results maybe due to chance.
“This is a potential way to immunize patients to lower the risk of recurrence,” said Linda Benavides, a resident in general surgery at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, who was the study’s lead author.
Nonetheless, the vaccine is safe and well-tolerated.
The vaccine is designed to stimulate the immune system to fight breast cancer. A Phase III trial is planned for 700 to 1000 patients for patients that are not eligible for Herceptin.
In the US, over 182,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each yar, according to the American Cancer Society.