Injection boosted immune response, seemed to slow spread in those with advanced disease
WebMD News from HealthDay
By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Dec. 2, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- An experimental vaccine designed to stop breast cancer in its tracks appeared to be safe in a preliminary trial.
Fourteen women with breast cancer that had spread were injected with a vaccine that targets a specific protein, known as mammaglobin-A, that is found in high amounts in breast tumors.
Although the study was small, the findings suggest that the vaccine may also boost a patient's immune response and help slow disease progression.
"I don't want to oversell this," cautioned study co-author Dr. William Gillanders, vice chairman for research in the department of surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "This is a small clinical trial. But we can say confidently that the vaccine was safe," he said.
"We can also say with confidence that we were able to generate an immune response in almost all the patients who were vaccinated," he added. "And there is preliminary evidence that the vaccine may have an impact on breast cancer progression. But that needs to be studied further to be confirmed."
Gillanders and his colleagues reported their findings in the Dec. 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.
The study authors noted that overexpression of mammaglobin-A is found in up to 80 percent of breast cancer patients.
The vaccine prompts a specific kind of white blood cell in the immune system to track this protein down and eliminate it.
The women in the study were classified as having "advanced" disease. This meant they had prior exposure to chemotherapy, a process known to undermine a patient's immune function.
That said, none of the patients had undergone chemotherapy in the month leading up to vaccination.
The team found that side effects from the vaccine after one year were minimal, and included rashes, tenderness and mild flu-like symptoms.
What's more, by the one-year mark roughly 50 percent of the patients showed no sign of disease progression, the investigators found.
By comparison, only 20 percent of a similar group of 12 patients showed no signs of disease progression one year out, according to the study authors.
source : Breast Cancer Vaccine Shows Promise in Early Trial
