Experimental Vaccine Safe for Breast Cancer: Researchers

A clinical trial show has revealed that a new form of experimental vaccine is found to be safe and effective against early-stage breast cancer. The vaccine is believed to stimulate the immune system that works to retract breast cancer. The vaccines has been made out of immune cells called dendritic cells which are yielded by all individual patient and is a personalised cure for them, said the researchers.

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The vaccine attacks the HER2 protein on breast cancer cells which is over expressed in 20-25 per cent of all breast cancer tumors and is related to the aggressive disease and poor prognosis. Earlier, researchers were of the view that immune cells are not capable enough to detect the cancer cells that express HER2 and breast cancer spreads leading to its moving towards advanced level.

The latest research has resulted in the conclusion that re-stimulation of immune cells might be effective against breast cancer and work against the cancer cells and target HER2 early during cancer development.

Researchers of Moffitt Cancer Centre in Florida, US performed a clinical trial on 54 women who had HER2-expressing early-stage breast cancer.

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This experiment was released in the journal Clinical Cancer Research and the researchers found out that this vaccine was well-tolerated and the patients showed improvement. During this period, the most common forms of adverse effects from it noticed among the patients were fatigue, injection site reactions, and chills. It was also noted that this vaccination was able to stimulated the immune cells in most of the patients in the trial.

Picture credit- Maurer Foundation