Vaccines questions

There seems to be so much going on in the area of vaccines. As I am fairly new at this I am wondering if anyone can help me understand how far away we really are from this, at what point they are beneficial and how they are administered. I will be receiving herceptin with Taxol for 12 weeks and then alone for the remainder of one year. I am one of the very fortunate people to have the timing have hit just perfectly for this as I have just finished AC (except for possibly being fortunate enough to have insurance pay this early in the game!). But I see that the ViroLogic eTag test to determine if the herceptin was even worth it is a year away, so as with many of you already have done, I will do a year of herceptin not really knowing if I am one to benefit from it or not. What I am wondering is if any of these vaccines will be useful to take over at that point if necessary, as I see they seem to act on our immune systems to fight of reoccurring cancer.
Any wisdom greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

[Kim in DC]

Hi Cheryl,

If you go to the index section of this site, you will find information on clinical trials.

There are 2 vaccine trials that have enrolled a lot of women from this site. Most of the women have enrolled in the trial in Seattle. The other vaccine trial is in PA close to Pitt.

For both trials, you have to test positive for HLA A2. For the PA trial you can also have HLA A3. They will tell you how to get tested.

You must first finish you initial treatment. So far, the Seattle trial is the only one where you can take Herceptin concurrently.

Julie also added information about two new vaccine trials on the clinical trial message board.


The first thing to do is concentrate on your current treatment. In the meantime, contact the trial nurse for each trial and gather information.

I would like to participate in the PA trial. However, based on the news from ASCO, I am going to stay on Herceptin a little while longer.

Read some of the posts on the clinical trial page to help with your decision

Kim in DC

[Rozebud]

Kim - Just a correction....Cheryl, I don't know if you're metastatic or not, but if you aren't, the Seattle trial does NOT require you to be HLA-A2/3 positive, but does exclude concurrent herceptin. As far as I know, there are no vaccine trials for stages I-III which allow herceptin at the same time, so you'd need to wait a year anyway.

If I am wrong, please jump in. I have done some research on this, but I know there's always more I don't know....

I remember hearing that you had to be stage IV but I called and they told me you did not have to be stage IV. The best thing to do is call and find out.