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Dear Michele:
My wife, Lisa, is a participant in the U of Washingtion vaccine study beginning in July, 2004. She completed her 6th vaccine injection in January 2005. In addition, at the urging of Dr. Disis she also participated in a study in which they harvested her t-cells for later use in the event she had a recurrance.
At the point my wife entered the study she was NED for a period of a year, having had a completer response to her herceptin treatments. Lisa was first diagnosed in 1991 with a 2cm breast tumor and 4 positive nodes. After 6 CAF treatments, 36 radiation treatiments, surgery and tamoxifin for 5 years, she remained cancer free until May, 2002. At that point she had a 7cm lung tumor and three 1cm tumors in her liver and was a Stage IV patient. Ultimately, all of these tumors disappeared as a result of herceptin.
In January, 2005 immediately after receiving her 6th vaccine treatment Drs. discovered two small tumors in the scar tissue from the old tumor in her lung. In late January the top portion of Lisa's left lung was removed. Pathology showed that these tumors had been invaded by two different types of t-cells which were active. Tissue samples were sent to U of Washington where we are awaiting results of more sophisticated staining to determine whether or not the vaccine had caused her immune system to attack these tumors.
On April 1st Lisa suffered a stroke while we were on a trip to Italy. The stroke was not caused by any brain tumor, but the MRI's she took as a result showed a 3cm brain tumor. This was treated a few days later by Gamma Knifer surgery.
Lisa never had a brain MRI over the last three years since her recurrence and so no one knows how long this had been there. It is possible that this tumor also was under attack by her immune system, but since no biopsy was never taken we will never know.
The good news after all of this is that Lisa is currently NED with no visible tumors in her lower body and no visible tumors in her head.
We maintain great hopes for the vaccine as our last blood test shows that Lisa is sustaining a strong immune response to Her2.
Sorry, this was so long, but the story was long. Hope it was helpful
Good Luck and God Bless!
Brian
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