Breast Cancer Vaccine May Halt Tumor Growth
Could One Day Be Used as Breast Cancer Treatment, Prevention
March 1, 2004 -- From Italy, there's news that a vaccine seems to slow -- or even halt -- the growth of breast cancer in mice. It could lead to a new breast cancer treatment and possibly a new preventive measure, researchers say.
It's another "first" in a worldwide effort aimed at developing a breast cancervaccine. Previous experiments have found that a vaccine can trigger the body to launch an all-out immune system attack against cancer cells.
However, it's not been clear whether this actually halts tumor growth, writes lead researcher Elena Quaglino, MD, a biologist with the University of Turin in Orbassano, Italy.
Quaglino's study appears in this week's issue of the Journal of Clinical InvestigationJournal of Clinical Investigation.
Her study involved mice specially bred to have lots of the HER-2/neu breast cancer gene. Ten weeks after they were born, the mice showed widespread signs of cancerous breast tissue that typically progress to fast-growing, invasive, metastatic tumors.
At that point, half the mice were given a vaccination to boost an immune system response against a protein -- called rp 185neu, a form of HER-2/neu -- found in excess on precancerous and early breast cancer cells in these mice. A week later, those same mice got a booster shot also composed of cells engineered to release interferon-gamma, a chemical that revs up the immune system.
The development of tumors was significantly delayed and kept 48% of the vaccinated mice tumor-free until the experiment ended at week 32.
Vaccination against this protein for early breastcancer may be an effective treatment strategy in humans, according to the researchers. However, it's not yet clear how well the vaccination would work against human breast cancer.
This experimental breast cancer treatment may be best reserved for women who cannot have surgery because of other unrelated conditions, she notes. In addition, it may be useful to help prevent breast cancer recurrence in women after surgery.
SOURCE: Quaglino, E. The Journal of Clinical Investigation, March 2004; vol 113: pp 709-717.