Scientists have developed a new vaccine to fight aggressive breast cancer

The vaccine has been shown to be safe and effective against triple-negative breast cancer, a type of breast cancer that does not respond to hormone therapy because it does not depend on any of the three hormones that normally stimulate the development of the disease, according to a Medicalxpress article.

Encouraging results

According to the results, published 13 November in Genome Medicine, 16 out of 18 patients remained cancer-free three years after receiving the vaccine. The vaccine had trained their immune systems to destroy the remaining cancer cells. In comparison, historical data shows that only half of patients who underwent surgery alone remain free of signs of cancer after three years.

'These results exceeded our expectations,' said lead researcher Dr William Gillanders, professor of surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis.

A personalised approach to treatment

The early clinical trial involved 18 women with triple-negative breast cancer that had not spread to other parts of the body. All had undergone chemotherapy and surgery to remove the tumour.

The researchers analysed each patient's tumour tissue after surgery to identify unique genetic mutations in the cancer cells. Based on these mutations, a personalised vaccine was created for each woman.

Each patient received three doses of the vaccine, which trained their immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells with specific mutations. As a result, 14 of the 18 patients developed an immune response to the vaccine.

A glimpse into the future

We are excited about the prospects for these neoantigenic vaccines," said Gillanders. - We hope that we can bring more of these technologies to our patients and improve treatment outcomes in aggressive cancers.

However, scientists caution that larger clinical trials are needed to confirm the vaccine's efficacy.

'We recognise the limitations of our study, but we are continuing to work towards this goal and conducting randomised controlled trials,' added Gillanders. - For now, we are encouraged by what we are seeing in our patients.

Source: Xiuli Zhang et al, "Neoantigen DNA vaccines are safe, feasible, and induce neoantigen-specific immune responses in triple-negative breast cancer patients," Genome Medicine (2024).