For an early stage breast cancer a new experimental vaccine has been found to be safe and effective in stimulating the immune system to retreat.
Based on results of a human trial, researchers from Moffitt Cancer Centre in the US claimed that the dendritic cell vaccine targets the HER2 protein in breast cancer cells is safe and effectively stimulates the immune system leading to regression of early-stage breast cancer.
The protein is over- expressed in 20-25% of all breast cancer tumours and is associated with aggressive disease and poor prognosis. The strategies that can re-stimulate the immune system to recognise and target HER2 early during cancer development may be effective treatment options, the researchers said. The approach involves creating the vaccine from immune cells, called dendritic cells, harvested from each individual patient to create a personalised vaccine.
The researchers report that the dendritic cell vaccines were well-tolerated and patients only experienced low-grade toxicities.
They assessed the effectiveness of the vaccine by determining the percentage of patients who had detectable disease within surgical specimens after resection.
