Researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center are seeking women volunteers with recurring breast cancer for a study to test an experimental immune system-boosting antibody.

The researchers hope the antibody can help women with metastatic breast cancer that hasn't responded to conventional chemotherapy.

The Phase I study will use an antibody called "R1550" directed at the MUC1 protein" which is exposed on the surface of cancer cells in more than 90 percent of women with breast cancer.

In normal tissues MUC1 is completely surrounded by carbohydrate molecules. In rapidly growing cancer cells these carbohydrate molecules don't form correctly and the protein core of MUC1 is exposed. This exposed protein core of MUC1 in cancer cells could offer a new target that is vulnerable to attack by antibodies.

For this study the researchers will recruit women who have already been treated with the chemotherapy drugs Taxol or Taxotere and an anthracycline drug such as Adriamycin but who have had a cancer relapse. The principal investigator of the study is Mark Pegram M.D.

Anyone interested in volunteering for the study can phone 1-888-798-0719.