Researchers create vaccine for breast-cancer treatment

It's not quite the cure to breast cancer, but Penn researchers may be getting closer to a vaccine to fight the disease.

A Penn research team has tested a new vaccine - which is designed for patients with early-stage breast cancer - in a pilot study, and those involved say it was unusually successful.

"This [vaccine] looks very favorable in that we can actually see a reaction in somebody that still had disease," said Brian Czerniecki, who led the research team. Czerniecki is the surgical director of Penn's Rena Rowan Breast Center and a professor of Surgical Oncology at Penn's School of Medicine.

The vaccine triggers a patient's immune system to combat overproduction of a protein - called "human epidermal growth-factor receptor" - involved in early breast-cancer development.

In the pilot study, 11 of 12 patients had an immune-system response that resulted in lower levels of the growth receptor, and six showed a decrease in early-stage breast cancer.

Most other cancer vaccines only see an immune response in about 50 percent of patients and actually affect the progress of the disease in about 10 percent, Czerniecki said, adding that the results exceeded expectations.

The results were presented at an American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Boston on Nov. 12.

"This is a big step forward," said Carl June - director of translational research at Penn's Abramson Cancer Center - who worked on manufacturing the vaccine. "The tumor actually changed over the period of a month, and it appears to be in response to that vaccine."

The research began more than seven years ago, said Czerniecki, who has worked with cancer vaccines for 13 years and who treats patients with breast cancer.

Researchers harvested patients' cells and treated them so that, when injected back into the body, they would activate the immune system to attack the cancer, Czerniecki said.

June said customized vaccines such as this one may be "the next wave" of treatment.

Peter Cohen of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Surgery Research - and a member of the research team - noted the lack of available information for this stage of breast cancer. He said there are no evident drawbacks to the vaccine, and its results demonstrate a need for additional studies.

"We know that the vaccine gives a very strong immune response," he said. "So the questions becomes a very exciting question, actually . whether that will cause the cancers to stay away for a long period of time, or forever."

But the study was only a first step, June emphasized. He said that years of further research to see whether the vaccine can prevent recurrences will follow.

The next step is to treat patients for a longer period of time, Czerniecki said.

Additionally, this type of vaccine can be applied to other cancers and might eliminate the need for surgery, he said.

June noted that there are not yet any effective FDA-approved therapeutic vaccines - used to treat patients who are already sick - for any disease "so this would be a breakthrough."

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