An experimental vaccine that aims to train the body to fight breast cancer has passed the first phase of clinical trialsand researchers say that injections to fight other types of cancer could reach the public sooner than you think.
The breast cancer vaccine comes from the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine, where scientists work on experimental treatments against various types of cancer. The team has recently been recognized at the Science Fair Gizmodo 2023.
Principal investigator Nora Disis, director of the Institute for UW Cancer Vaccineshas declared Gizmodo that he hopes to see a therapeutic cancer vaccine available to patients in the next 5 years.
“Our goal is to cure cancer, vaccine by vaccine,” he says.
The vaccine has helped most women survive 10 years, longer than expected
In it rehearsal phase 1 security 66 women with advanced stage breast cancer have received varying doses of the experimental vaccine. All of them had received treatment for cancer, so the disease had stopped spreading or had gone into remission. In addition, all were at high risk of cancer recurrence.
The vaccine is designed to provoke an immune response against a certain type of protein, called HER2, which is associated with around 30% of breast cancers. This protein is found in many types of cells, but some aggressive breast cancer cells produce up to 100 times more HER2 HER2 than normal cells.
HER2-positive breast cancers are more odds to come back after treatment, but they are also easier to recognize by the killer cells of the immune system. The researchers hope that by asking the body to produce more HER2, the vaccine trains the immune system to attack the cancer and leaves normal cells alone.
According to the study, 80% of women who have received the vaccine have survived the 10-year study periodwhich is well above the expected 5-year survival rate for this type of cancer, which is 50%.
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Although the safety trial is not meant to prove that a treatment works—only that it can be tolerated at a given dose—Disis claims that the results are promising. In theory, such a vaccine could also be used to treat a new protein-positive cancer.
Now, the vaccine is undergoing phase II trials to measure its effectiveness. The team is also testing two other candidate vaccines to fight breast cancer and is developing vaccines against ovarian, colon, lung, bladder and prostate cancers.
“I think we have reached a tipping point in cancer vaccines”declares Disis to Gizmodo.
