Experimental Breast Cancer Vaccine Could Reduce Deaths By 50%, Researchers Say

Main Category: Breast Cancer
Also Included In: Immune System / Vaccines;  Clinical Trials / Drug Trials
Article Date: 16 Apr 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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An experimental vaccine that triggers the immune system to fight HER 2-positive breast cancer could reduce the risk of death for most patients, according to a study presented Sunday at an American Association for Cancer Research meeting in San Diego, Reuters reports. According to Reuters, about 25% to 30% of women with the disease have tumors that contain the HER 2 protein, which tend to grow faster and have a higher rate of recurrence than HER 2-negative tumors.

The vaccine has been licensed to the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company Apthera under the brand name NeuVax. Researchers at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio tested the vaccine in 163 women with both low and high levels of the HER 2 protein. After 30 months, the vaccine was found to reduce the risk of death for all breast cancer patients by 50%. No deaths were reported among the women with low levels of the HER 2 protein. The results on survival rates are not statistically significant because of the small number of participants, Reuters reports. The study found that breast cancer recurred in 10.7% of the vaccinated women with low HER 2 rates, compared with 18.2% of women with low HER 2 who were not vaccinated.

William Hait, president of AACR and head of oncology at Johnson & Johnson's Ortho Biotech unit, said the study is "surprising" because the "low-expressing patients" had "better outcomes." Hait added that the data are "difficult to interpret." According to Linda Benavides, lead researcher and a general surgery resident at BAMC, the vaccine offers a "very simplistic approach" to treating HER 2-positive breast cancer and would be "very cheap to mass produce."

Benavides said the researchers have planned a Phase III trial of the vaccine that will test the vaccine in more than 700 women with low levels of HER 2. According to Reuters, women with low levels of HER 2 typically have a better prognosis than women with higher levels of the protein, leading to questions about whether the results of the study can be duplicated in the Phase III trial (Beasley, Reuters, 4/13).

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