Discovery: After successful trials on animals, studies on women will start soon
Doctors have long wanted cancer to be targeted throug h the body's resistance. Actually, cancer cells are normal cells that grow uncontrollably. Instructing the body to destroy these cells can have dangerous consequences. Researchers are now testing the idea of whether the immune system can be trained to recognize and destroy breast cancer cells, similar to attacking viruses or bacteria. Discoveries in immunotherapy have led to powerful drugs that can differentiate between cancer cells and healthy cells.
Dr. G. Thomas Budd of the Cleveland Clinic Tossing Cancer Center is leading a study on a breast cancer vaccine. This vaccine can help make cancer-protecting antibodies and other immune cells in women. The vaccine is designed to protect against the very serious disease of breast cancer called triple negative. At present, there are very few treatment options available for this disease.
Molecules that target common breast cancer drugs—estrogen, progesterone, or HER2, are not produced in triple negative breast cancer.
The first phase of the study will focus on women aged 18 to 24 who have been diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer. He has been treated with chemotherapy, surgery and drugs that affect DNA. These women will be given three doses of the vaccine going on in the trial phase with a gap of two weeks. Doctor . Bud and his team will look at the side effects of the vaccine on women with the vaccine to see if they develop any resistance against cancer. Convinced of the results of the vaccine trials on animals, the Food and Drug Administration has approved the first study on humans.
Evention of tumor formation
Dr. Bud's Vaccine is based on the discovery of his colleague Vincent Twohey at the Cleveland Clinic. It attacks the breast cancer protein called alpha-lactalbumin. This protein is made in 70% of cases of triple negative breast cancer. Tuhi, in a study on rats, found that the immune system with the vaccine prevented tumor formation by recognizing the protein. This has slowed the rate of breast tumor formation in animals.
