The Cleveland Clinic, in the United States, has shared the health journey of Jennifer Davis, the first patient to receive a breast cancer vaccine.
The story traces Davis’ clinical history, from the moment he started feeling a lump in the breast in 2018 until the dreaded call confirming that she had triple negative breast cancer.
The woman decided to seek all available options for her treatment. That was how she arrived at the Cleveland Clinic, where she, along with her entire care team, underwent several sessions of chemotherapy and radiation.
To further minimize this cancer, the woman underwent a double mastectomy. After several appointments with her breast medical oncologist Megan Kruse, reached an unprecedented clinical trial of a vaccine against breast cancer.
Davis details that after her double mastectomy, her doctors informed her that there were no signs that the cancer would have spread somewhere else.
Triple negative breast cancer is considered an aggressive cancer due to its rapid growth and spread. There is even a high probability that it will return once treatment has been started.
Vaccine against breast cancer
The woman met the characteristics to participate in the study. It was part of Phase 1a, which includes patients who have completed the treatment for triple negative breast cancer early stage in the last 3 months and have no tumors, but a high risk of recurrence.
The vaccine was developed by the late Dr. Vincent Tuohyformer Mort and Iris November Distinguished Chair in Breast Cancer Research at the Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic.
In 2021, Davis became the first patient to enroll in the study and receive the first dose of the vaccinewhich consists of three doses applied every two weeks.
How does the vaccine work?
be prepared targets a lactation protein called α-lactoalbúminawhich is not found after lactation in normal aged tissues, but is present in most triple-negative breast cancers.
It was designed to incite the immune system to attack the tumor and prevent it from growing.
Five years in remission
After her last dose applied in 2021, the woman is close to turning five years old without presenting any symptoms associated with cancer.
“Even though you’re going to have days where you’re not positive, where you feel terrible, keep going. If the vaccine works the way they want it to, it could one day prevent triple-negative breast cancer.“, dice Jennifer.
