A DNA-based breast cancer vaccination showed good results in a first test on humans.
The desired immune response against a certain type of breast cancer turned out to be strong.
An effective vaccine would be a breakthrough in fighting the disease.
Seattle/Bremen – Researchers at the
University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSM)
in Seattle/USA have been working for over 20 years to find a vaccine against a specific form of breast cancer.
They have now achieved success with the preparation they have developed in the first phase of the clinical study on humans: the vaccination generated a strong immune response against a protein that can be found on the surface of tumor cells, as the university announced.
The researchers are optimistic that the vaccine can one day be used to treat various types of breast cancer - with the proviso, of course, that this still has to be tested further, as reported by
kreiszeitung.de
.
The first phase of the long-term study of breast cancer vaccination has been positive
The results of the long-term study were positive, but several further tests are needed before more meaningful results are available, explains study leader Dr.
Mary L. Disis, who teaches oncology at
UWSM
and is director of the
Cancer Vaccine Institute
.
In this first clinical test phase, on the one hand, the safety of the vaccination was to be checked and, on the other hand, the researchers wanted to find out whether the DNA-based vaccine is actually capable of eliciting an immune response in humans.
The breast cancer vaccine is a DNA-based drug
The vaccine used is a DNA-based drug that targets a protein called HER2.
HER stands for "Human Epidermal Receptor".
These protein particles on the cell surface transmit growth signals into the interior of the cell.
Cancer cells often have a much larger number of these receptor particles on the surface than other cells.
The growth signal causes the cells to divide much more frequently than cells normally do.
This creates a tumor that grows uncontrollably.
The vaccine produced an immune response against HER2-positive breast cancer
This HER2 receptor plays an important role in some types of breast cancer.
About 20 percent of cases are so-called HER2-positive breast cancers.
This means that many of these receptors have been detected in the tumor cells.
HER2-positive breast cancer is a non-hereditary type of cancer.
The difficulties in treatment are that on the one hand it grows very quickly and aggressively and often recurs, i.e. recurs.
So far, these tumors have been treated with targeted antibody therapy.
On the one hand, this form of therapy is more targeted and, on the other hand, there are significantly fewer side effects than with classic chemotherapy, which is also used in the fight against many other types of cancer such as lung cancer, colon cancer or testicular cancer.
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Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer diagnosed in women.
(archive image)
© Michael Hanschke/dpa
The strongest immune response to breast cancer vaccination was seen with the middle vaccine dose
The vaccination developed by Disis and her colleagues starts at a similar point.
Because the desired immune response, which is otherwise best caused by antibody therapy, should also be caused by your vaccine.
To do this, they used a DNA-based drug that contains the genetic information to build antibodies that attach to the HER2 binding site and are thus able to block it.
Although it does not differ in terms of its effect, it does differ in terms of its design from protein-based vaccines that are otherwise used, in which parts of the protein against which antibodies are to be formed are administered.
For the clinical study, 66 women with metastatic breast cancer of the same type were injected with three doses of the vaccine.
One group received 10 micrograms each, a second group 100 micrograms and a third 500 micrograms per dose.
The test persons were then regularly medically examined over a period of three to 13 years and the development of their disease was recorded.
"The vaccine is safe.
The side effects were mild, similar to the Covid vaccination.”
"The results showed that the vaccination is very safe," says study leader Disis.
"The most common side effects that we found in around half of the test subjects were similar to the Covid vaccination: redness and swelling at the injection site, sometimes also a slight fever and flu-like symptoms." According to the researchers, the desired immune response occurred the test subjects who received the medium dose were most pronounced.
Even if the study was not originally intended to find out whether the vaccination can slow down or stop the progression of the cancer, it has been shown that the test subjects were significantly better off than the patients during the monitoring period, which was ten years on average this type of breast cancer, which were at a comparable stage, according to Disis.
Half of these women would die within five years despite treatment.
After ten years, the subjects are doing better with their breast cancer than women without vaccination
"We have known our subjects for ten years now and 80 percent of them are still alive," explains the oncologist.
"If the results of the second randomized test phase are also positive, then that is a strong signal for us to quickly initiate the next, third test phase.
I have great hope that we are very close to having a vaccine that will effectively help people with breast cancer.” It would be a breakthrough in the treatment of what is by far the most commonly diagnosed type of cancer in women.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women - an effective vaccine would be a breakthrough
According to data from the Robert Koch Institute, around one in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime.
Only part of it is of the HER2-positive type.
However, if the vaccination proves to be effective in further tests and is approved by the drug authorities, at least these women could be helped.
However, this will still take time.
With targeted preventive measures and an adapted lifestyle, however, you can also reduce your risk of cancer yourself.
List of rubrics: © Michael Hanschke/dpa