An experimental vaccine could give hope to women diagnosed with an aggressive and difficult-to-treat form of breast cancer, according to new research.
The vaccine appears to be safe and effective against it triple negative breast cancer – a type that can’t be treated with hormone therapy because it isn’t driven by any of the three hormones that normally fuel breast cancer.
The good news? Sixteen of the 18 patients remained cancer-free three years after receiving the vaccine, which taught their immune systems to kill any remaining tumor cells, according to findings published Nov. 13 in the journal. Genome medicine.
By comparison, according to historical data, only half of patients who undergo surgery alone remain cancer-free three years later.
The initial clinical trial involved 18 patients with triple-negative breast cancer that had not spread to other parts of the body.
According to the US National Breast Cancer Foundation, approximately 10 to 15 percent of breast cancers in the United States are triple negative.
To date, there are no targeted therapies for triple-negative breast cancer. It should be treated with traditional approaches such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the researchers said.
All patients in the clinical trial had undergone chemotherapy, followed by surgery to remove the breast tumors, the researchers said.
The research team analyzed tumor tissue after surgery to find unique genetic mutations in the patients’ tumor cells. They then created a cancer-specific vaccine for each patient, based on these mutations.
Each patient received three doses of the vaccine, which taught their immune system to recognize key mutations in specific breast tumors and attack the tumor cells, the researchers said.
The results showed that 14 of 18 patients with triple-negative breast cancer developed an immune response to the vaccine.
However, researchers cautioned that larger clinical trials are needed to prove the vaccine’s effectiveness.