Breast cancer vaccine safely generates anti-tumor immunity

Study findings suggest that a vaccine could be used to prevent or treat a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer. An experimental vaccine against breast cancer safely generated a strong immune response to a key tumor protein, researchers from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle report in a paper published by the journal JAMA Oncology. The findings suggest the vaccine may be able to treat different types of breast cancer. “Because this was not a randomized clinical trial, the results should be considered preliminary, but the findings are promising enough that the vaccine will now be evaluated in a larger, randomized clinical trial,” said lead author Dr. Mary “Nora” L. Disis, a UW professor of medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, and director of the Cancer Vaccine Institute. The phase I trial was designed to evaluate the safety of a vaccine that targets a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor...