First Triple-negative Breast Cancer Vaccine Trial Begins

Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic have published a study on a preventive triple-negative breast cancer vaccine, the most aggressive and lethal form of this disease.

The goal of this phase I trial is to determine the maximum tolerated amount of this vaccine in patients with triple-negative breast cancer in early cases. In addition, the study will serve to characterize and optimize the immune response of patients.

“We hope that this research will lead to more advanced trials to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine against this type of highly aggressive breast cancer,” explained G. Thomas Budd of the Taussig Cancer Institute at the Cleveland Clinic and researcher.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized an application for this drug in research for the vaccine, so Cleveland Clinic will be able to begin the study with its partner Anica Bioesciences.

“The vaccine approach represents a potential new way to control breast cancer,” said Vincent Tuohy, Ph.D., the vaccine’s chief inventor and staff immunologist at the Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute.

“The long-term goal of this research is to determine whether this vaccine can prevent breast cancer before it occurs, particularly the more aggressive forms of this disease that predominate in high-risk women,” says Vincent Tuohy.

The vaccine being studied at Cleveland Clinic is intended for a breast-specific lactating protein, α-lactalbumin, which is no longer found after breastfeeding in normal and aged tissues, but it is present in most triple-negative breast cancers.

Activating the immune system against this protein generates a preventive immune protection against breast cancer tumors that epresan α-lactalbumin.