Breast cancer vaccine clinical trials begin

In the Americas region, more than 462,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer annually and nearly 100,000 die, according to the Pan American Health Organization (OPS). But not all the pictures are the same, since there are different subtypes of the disease.

Of these, the triple negative breast cancer It is the most aggressive and lethal form, not only because of its rapid development or the greater probability that it will return after treatment, but also because it has. However, it is possible that in the not too distant future there is a method to prevent its appearance.

Cleveland Clinic specialists, together with the biotechnology company Anixa Biosciences, have started the first clinical trial of a potential vaccine to prevent triple negative breast cancer.

According to the official statement, this phase 1 trial has been designed to optimize the body’s immune response.

“In the long term, we hope this can be a true preventive vaccine that would be given to healthy women to prevent them from developing triple negative breast cancer, the form of breast cancer for which we have less effective treatments,” said George Thomas Budd, from the Taussig Cancer Institute, Cleveland Clinic, and the study’s principal investigator.

Immune response

The vaccine candidate being studied seeks for the body to generate an immune response when it comes into contact with a lactation protein from the breast, alpha-lactoalbúmina. This protein disappears from normal and aging tissues after breastfeeding; Nevertheless,. Likewise, the vaccine contains an adjuvant that strengthens the defenses against emerging tumors, preventing them from growing.

The clinical trial is based on preclinical research led by Dr. Vincent Tuohy, of the Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic. His work showed that.

That research also found that a single vaccine could prevent the appearance of breast tumors in mouse models, while also inhibiting the growth of existing breast tumors. This preclinical work was published in the journal “Nature Medicine” in 2010.

“The long-term goal of the study is to determine if this vaccine can prevent breast cancer before it occurs, particularly the more aggressive forms of this disease that predominate in high-risk women,” says Tuohy.

Triple negative

Triple negative breast cancer bears that name because, and that they are used to fight the disease. That is why the treatment for this form of cancer is limited (tumor removal, mastectomy, chemotherapy).

This type of breast cancer, and approximately 70% to 80% of breast tumors that occur in women with BRCA1 gene mutations, are triple negative breast cancer.

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