NeuVax bc vaccine effective in patients with low Her2 levels

[Cynthia]

Debbie,

Thanks for your response. Rather than guess, I suggest we go to the source. I will contact the PI and his team (I know them) and will try to get some answers to your excellent questions. Stay tuned.

Best,

[Cynthia]

Debbie,

Here is the response I just received from the PI, COL George Peoples, MD:

Valid questions….here’s the scoop…

HER2/neu negative as used in clinical practice today does not mean that HER2/neu isn’t expressed, just not over expressed. The actual distribution of HER2 expression by IHC staining is as follows: 25% - IHC 3+ or over-expressed (the vast majority of these are also FISH >2), 50% - IHC 1-2+ (called negative but actually low-expressors), and approx 25% - IHC 0 (true negatives).

The E75 vaccine trial presented at AACR worked in all patients but best in the low expressors (LE).

The actual rates as reported for the OE (over-expressors – 25% of all breast cancer patients) and LE (low –expressors – 50% of all breast cancer patients):

Recurrence rate OE-controls = 18% at 3 years vs 14% in the OE-vaccinated
<DIR><DIR>LE-controls = 18% at 3 years vs 11% in the LE-vaccinated

</DIR></DIR>Mortality rate OE-controls = 9% at 3 yrs vs 3% in the OE-vaccinated
LE-controls = 7% at 3 yrs vs 0% in the LE-vaccinated

Mortality among patients that recurred
OE-controls = 50% vs 25% in the OE-vaccinated
LE-controls = 38% vs 0% in the LE-vaccinated
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[dlaxague]

Wow, Cynthia, how handy to have the inside track. Thank you for keeping us all well-informed. And please thank Dr. Peoples for the timely and informative response.

With this information it all makes sense. (I knew I couldn't be getting it correctly) And it sounds more impressive and more intriguing.

Now for larger studies, planned subgroups analyses, and we hope, more of those impressive results.

Debbie

[Hopeful]

Cynthia, I am really impressed by the ability of our Board members (and you, in particular here) to get the definitive information directly from the source. Where else could we go, to get our questions answered timely and accurately. Kudos. Goes to show what a great resource we have here.

Hopeful

[PinkGirl]

Thanks Cynthia - very helpful.