U of WA Her2 Vaccine trial question

[hutchibk]

Hi - a quick question for those of you who know about the vaccine trial at U of Washington...

What are the parameters of the trial and how does one qualify? I am currently on Taxol/Herceptin, indefinitely. Do they require you to halt current treatment to be in the trial? Do they require you to visit their clinic only or will they work with my doc to administer the vaccine?

I am very green about trials, etc... but am very interested in this one. I won't do one that requires me to stop the Taxol/Herceptin as it seems to be keeping me stabilized with out any progression.

Thanks for any info you can offer!

[Lolly]

Hi, here's a link to the Clinical Trial News page on this site; there you'll find additional links to the various trials offered at UW/Seattle and each trial outline will list the inclusion/exclusion criteria. I was in one of UW's Phase II vaccine trials, which required me to travel to UW once a month for six months to receive the vaccine. I was allowed to be on Herceptin while in the trial, but had to be off all chemo for one month prior to enrolling. Each trial has somewhat different criteria, so hopefully you'll find one that will fit your needs.
If you scroll to the end of the trial outlines, there will usually be a contact person/contact information, and in my case Patty Fintak at UW was very good about returning my call and answering my questions.

<3 Lolly
http://www.her2support.org/a/newher2.htm

[Sherryg683]

The trial I checked on was a Phase I trial, you had to travel to Washington and you could continue on Herceptin...sherryg683

[DonnaNY]

Is this the Her 2 Protien auto vac? Or is it another drug?

[Barbara2]

I recently emailed someone at the U of Washington with a number of questions. Here is what I found out:

The eligibility criterion requires participants to be Stage III or IV. Their later studies are likely to include earlier stages.

Their vaccine is a breast cancer antigen specific vaccine (versus a cell based vaccine). DNA serves as a delivery method for the HER2/neu antigen.

The primary difference between the U of Washington's plasmid DNA vaccine and Windber's E75 vaccine is that the U of Washington's is gene-based (in the form of DNA) and theirs is peptide-based.

One of U of Washington's other trials for Stage IV patients only, includes a peptide-based vaccine. The difference between Windber's E75 vaccine and their peptide-based vaccine, is that the U of W's uses three peptides, one of which is E75. The other two peptides have also been shown to induce a strong immune response. They give all three together in the vaccination (along with GM-CSF) because some people respond to different peptides.

Keep checking their website, www.tumorvaccinegroup.org (http://www.tumorvaccinegroup.org) over the coming months/years to see if they have any protocols that will work for you.