a way to get your own T cells to attack your her2+ bc

[Lani]

article implies you have to be HLA2 + (something one can be tested for)

They take out a patients own T cells and train them to react to their her2+ bc
and overcome the tricks the her2+ bc uses to hide from/inactivate the immune system.

May need to be supplemented with something which helps them get throught the stroma (other tissue surrounding the tumor) to penetrate the tumor in solid tissues

ie it worked better on isolated tumor cells in bone marrow than in large liver mets

1: Cancer Immunol Immunother. 2007 Jul 24; [Epub ahead of print]
Adoptive transfer of autologous, HER2-specific, cytotoxic T lymphocytes for the treatment of HER2-overexpressing breast cancer.

Bernhard H, Neudorfer J, Gebhard K, Conrad H, Hermann C, Nährig J, Fend F, Weber W, Busch DH, Peschel C.
Department of Hematology/Oncology, Technical University of Munich, Klinikum rechts der Isar, 81675, Munich, Germany.
The human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) has been targeted as a breast cancer-associated antigen by immunotherapeutical approaches based on HER2-directed monoclonal antibodies and cancer vaccines. We describe the adoptive transfer of autologous HER2-specific T-lymphocyte clones to a patient with metastatic HER2-overexpressing breast cancer. The HLA/multimer-based monitoring of the transferred T lymphocytes revealed that the T cells rapidly disappeared from the peripheral blood. The imaging studies indicated that the T cells accumulated in the bone marrow (BM) and migrated to the liver, but were unable to penetrate into the solid metastases. The disseminated tumor cells in the BM disappeared after the completion of adoptive T-cell therapy. This study suggests the therapeutic potential for HER2-specific T cells for eliminating disseminated HER2-positive tumor cells and proposes the combination of T cell-based therapies with strategies targeting the tumor stroma to improve T-cell infiltration into solid tumors.
PMID: 17646988 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]