Breast cancer vaccine looks safe, study shows

[TZ]

- A vaccine designed to treat breast cancer appeared to be safe in women with advanced disease and showed signs of actually slowing down tumors, U.S. researchers reported on Friday.

Dendreon Corporation, maker of the Provenge prostate cancer vaccine, calls the new vaccine Neuvenge. It targets a type of breast cancer called her2/neu-positive breast cancer, which affects between 20 percent and 30 percent of breast cancer patients.

Like Provenge, Neuvenge is made using immune cells from the cancer patient, so it is a tailor-made vaccine.

Dr. John Park of the University of California, San Francisco and colleagues tested it in 18 women with advanced her2/neu-positive breast cancer, whose cancer had spread despite treatment.

Writing in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the researchers said the vaccine did not cause any serious side effects and appeared to help at least one patient.

"We saw a partial response, meaning a reduction in the size of tumor area in one patient that was certainly attributable to the treatment," Park said in a telephone interview.

In three other women, their cancer appeared to stabilize for as long as a year, something that could have been due to treatment, Park said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070817/sc_nm/cancer_breast_neuvenge_dc


Okay, the Phase I study was a small group and it only helped a small amount. And its years away from large scale use (as phase 2 will take a long time with much more safety and efficacy testing will be done) so there is that. However anything that may reduce the need or eliminate altogether the need for chemotherapy is a very good thing. If nothing else this treatment can possibly extend the lives of patients with this horrible disease...
Park said the effects justify moving from the Phase 1 safety trial to a Phase 2 trial, which would be designed to show the treatment actually helps patients. But that may not happen for a while, he said.

FULL PLATE

[goclark]

1. Please let it help, please, please!

[OlderButWiser]

2. How is it a vaccine

if it is being used on women that have breast cancer?

[TZ]

3. its a vaccine because

its stimulating the bodies own immune system to fight an invader...in this case the tumor. Some vaccines actually do work even when the person has already been exposed to the antigen (anthrax and rabies are both effective post exposure vaccines).

[dropkickpa]

9. The is a TON of research into

Cancer immunology happening right now. It's a very exciting field with a LOT of promise. Researchers are getting some very cool results in animal trials, and the promise of this relatively new field seems to just keep growing. I've done a lot of support work with a leader in this field and, I have to tell you, this is some VERY exciting stuff.

[OzarkDem]

4. If effective , it helps about 1/3 of breast cancer patients

About 1/3 of women dx with breast cancer test positive for overexpression of the Her2-neu oncogene. The current treatment, Herceptin, helps many of these women, but can also damage heart muscle. Herceptin is a monoclonal antibody, not chemotherapy, but as stated, can still have damaging side effects.

Herceptin alone is not always effective, so it would be helpful to have another theapy with less toxic side effects.

The downside of these new targeted therapies is they are often very, very expensive. Herceptin costs about $80,000 for 1 year of treatment. In patients w/ mets, it controls the growth of tumors, but doesn't usually get rid of them, so patients take the drug for many years.

Its positive news, but isn't a magic bullet for all breast cancer.

Even better would be to find what causes breast cancer and how to prevent anyone from getting it!

[TZ]

5. they know SOME...

They know that certain chromosomal aberrations are linked to breast cancer...thats usually the type of breast cancer that runs in families. A lot of people now can actually be screened for the genes as well..of course that opens up the whole insurance thing about denying coverage because of the person likely developing the disease in the future...but that's a WHOLE other topic..

[OzarkDem]

7. Genetics loads the gun, environment pulls the trigger

Agree, they know more and more about genetic predisposition, but we really need to improve our knowledge of how environmental factors play a role.

So far, we've overspent on research on diet, exercise, etc. but haven't funded enough research on other environmental factors. The Silent Spring Institute recently released a report, I guess like a systematic review, on over 217 chemicals that cause breast cancer in mice. Another recent study showed women exposed to DDT during puberty had a 5 fold increase in breast cancer risk. But NIEHS can't get enough money to fund research into how environmental toxins affect breast cancer risk in humans.

The Breast Cancer & Environmental Research Act (BCERA) has been stalled in Congress for SIX YEARS.

Here's a petition we encourage everyone to sign to get it moving.

http://www.lesspinkmoreresearch.org/

Sorry, I don't mean to hijack your thread, but I'm always trying to push this bill for funding environmental research. :D

[TZ]

8. No I agree entirely

and in that same vein I have recently gotten pissed off by people who think DDT is "not that dangerous" and would save more lives then it would hurt and that Rachel Carson's research was "junk science".:grr:

[Horse with no Name]

6. Awesome.

I will light a candle for my best friend who succumbed to this horrible disease.

[JMDEM]

10. Breast Cancer is a terrible disease, but...

Lung cancer kills more women in the US than breast cancer, yet research into lung cancer is grossly underfunded. Perhaps it is the stigma of lung cancer that is to blame -- "if you have lung cancer it is probably your fault..." It is probably also due to the fact that breast cancer treatment leads to disfigurement, while lung cancer treatment does not.

Both diseases spread rapidly -- they are very aggressive forms of cancer. And the chemotherapy for both types of cancer has nasty nasty side effects. I hope the immunotherapy angle leads to some much safer treatments.