Hello Ladies,

For those of you on the vaccine trial, (Michele U) when did you start contacting them about starting the vaccine. My mom has still got to do Herceptin till the end of September so do you think it is too early to apply for it? Do they make you do an MRI or CT as well?

Thanks,
Anne

Anne,
I went to Seattle not Windber. They are both Her2 vaccines. It depends on what stage she is. If she is stage 4 then i don't know how long she has to be off Herceptin. Stage 3 like me i know i had to be off Herceptin for 30 days to start the vaccine. It's never too early to start asking questions. I know Dr. Disis from Seattle is very good about aswering questions the same day. Her email is ndisis@u.washington.edu Don't feel like you can't email her, because she is very nice and willing to answer questions.

Hi Michele,

Thanks for your input. My mom Stage II and was on adjuvant Herceptin, but I want to do the Windber one because it is closer to us on the East Coast. Is there any reason you chose the one in Seattle? Did it seem better to you in any way?

Anne,
The Seattle vaccine is a DNA vaccine. The Windber one, i think, is a peptide vaccine. If you have to be tested for HLA then i think it's a peptide vaccine. The difference, as i understood it is, is that there are a lot of peptide's on cancer cells. The peptide vaccine builds up immunity to that peptide. The DNA vaccine is suppose to be broken down one step already so the immunity should be easier to get. It's very confusing, if someone else understands it differently please respond