Gene Vaccine Protects Mice Against Development Of Her2/neu Breast Cancer

"Based on successful animal studies, a novel vaccine that uses immune cells as factories to produce Her2/neu protein may offer a way to treat some human breast cancers, say researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Their study, published in the online journal, Breast Cancer Research, on Nov. 29, 2004, showed that the vaccine protected 86 percent of experimental mice against HER2/neu-associated breast cancer, even though the tumors were implanted directly into mice.

This is an exciting strategy that seems to elicit a complete immunologic response against HER2/neu," says the study's lead author, Lawrence Lachman, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Experimental Therapeutics. "Now that we have gone as far as we can in animal studies, I hope this agent might be tested clinically both to treat HER2/neu breast tumors, and to prevent them from spreading."

The rest of the article details the more technical aspects of the vaccine.