How do the vaccines differ?
 

I've just completed my year of Herceptin and am looking for a trial in which to participate. There are three that look very promising and hope to be accepted into one of them. (UW, MDAnderson, Mayo).

In spite of all the research and questioning and reading, I still have questions. Are all vaccines equal, or does each research facility develop its own? Each seems to pair the vaccine with a different booster, but is the basic vaccine the same?

Is there any documentation of which booster paired with which vaccine seems the most promising?

The vaccine teams all seem very personable and helpful and answer my questions thoroughly, but I don't know of anyone that can help me compare each trial against the other. (This is my traveling vacation money I'll be spending, so I'd like to make the best possible decision. :o)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Re: How do the vaccines differ?
 

The vaccines are different in several ways.

Take for instance the peptide vaccine trial at Walter Reed that Sandra GA and I are enrolled in. Depending on if you are HLA-A2+ or HLA-A2- you are randomized to two different arms. I ended up in the GP2 arm. This vaccine was developed by Dr. George Peoples and is produced by the military.

Sandra was randomized into the AE37 arm. This vaccine is developed by Antigen Express. This trial is for early or primary breast cancer and is measuring effectiveness in preventing a recurrence of breast cancer.

The Mayo Clinic vaccine trial in Arizona was based on MUC1. I was already beyond 3 months since ending Herceptin and missed enrolling in that.

The Washington trial I believe is for Stage IV breast cancer. We have had many Her2 Support ladies participate in that trial.

I'm not sure about MD Anderson's vaccine. It could be the one my clinical trial nurse, Karen Escamilla, is administrating for E75 - which is a first generation vaccine that is being tested for lower expressors of Her2. This is a vaccine produced by Galena Biopharma.

There are dendritic vaccines, etc.

We've had several discussions on the board. You might want to do a search on vaccines using the Search tab at the top of the page.

I traveled to San Antonio for my trial. Insurance covered most of the travel since nothing was available in my area. At first I thought I would be responsible for the travel and was very grateful to find out insurance would reimburse for it.