- A breast cancer vaccine showed promise at keeping survivors in remission in an early clinical trial.
- A cancer vaccine could reach the public in the next five years, according to researchers.
- The scientists who developed the shot were recently recognized for their research by Gizmodo.
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An experimental vaccine that aims to train the body to fight breast cancer has passed the first stage of clinical trials, and researchers said shots to combat other types of cancer could reach the public sooner than you’d think.
The breast cancer vaccine comes from the University of Washington School of Medicine, where scientists are working on experimental treatments for various cancers. The team was recently recognized in the 2023 Gizmodo Science Fair.
Lead researcher Nora Disis, director of UW’s Cancer Vaccine Institute, told Gizmodo that she expects to see a therapeutic cancer vaccine available to patients within the next five years.
“We’re aiming to cure cancer, one vaccine at a time,” she told the outlet.
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The vaccine helped most women survive for 10 years — longer than expected
In the Phase 1 safety trial, 66 women with advanced stage breast cancer got varying doses of the experimental vaccine. All of the women involved had previously undergone treatment for their cancer, so the disease had either stopped spreading or gone into remission. They also all had high risk of reemergence of their cancer.
The vaccine is designed to elicit an immune response to a certain type of protein, called HER2, that is associated with about 30% of breast cancers. The protein is found on many types of cells, but some aggressive breast cancer cells make as much as a hundred times more HER2 compared to normal cells.
While HER2-positive breast cancers are more likely to come back after treatment, they’re also more recognizable to the immune system’s killer cells. The researchers hope that, by telling the body to make more HER2, the vaccine will train the immune system to attack the cancer while leaving normal cells alone.
Eighty percent of women who got the vaccine have survived the ten-year study period, which is well above the expected 50% five-year survival rate for their type of cancer, according to the study.
While the safety trial is not meant to prove that a treatment works — just that it can be tolerated at a certain dose — Disis said the results are promising. In theory, such a vaccine could also be used to treat a new cancer that’s positive for the protein.
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Now, the vaccine is going through Phase II trials to gauge its effectiveness. The team is also testing two other vaccine candidates meant to fight breast cancer, and they are developing vaccines against ovarian, colon, lung, bladder, and prostate cancers as well.
“I think we’ve come to a tipping point for cancer vaccines,” Disis told Gizmodo.
