Breast Cancer Vaccine?

[alelks]

This is a very interesting article. It amazes me that they can't find funding for human trials even from some very high profile agencies. It's just like everything else I guess. If you prevent it money can't be made for a cure once you get it. :mad:

Thoughts?

http://www.wndu.com/home/headlines/Breast-Cancer-Vaccine-100-effective-in-mice-Waiting-for-human-trials-173738701.html

[SF_BHT]

Let's stop giving funding for a lot of the silly research programs that are earmarks and use some funding for this research.

[PedOncoDoc]

I will refer to my earlier post about our incredible ability to cure cancer in mice that rarely translates into successful human treatment strategies.

Having said that, Dr. Tuohy's concept of a vaccine against a protein only present during lactation is a novel and interesting idea. Given the amount of funds going to breast cancer and prostate cancer research/medical care, I'm surprised they haven't bit on this trial. Of course, I've not had the chance to see all of the data or the grant proposals, so there may be concerns about the science and/or its safety in/applicability to human trials. One safety concern would be significant side effects/toxicity in the case of pregnancy (unintentional or otherwise) after vaccination.

[Flicka]

Thank you for sharing this article - I'll definitely pass it on to some folks who will be able to give donations to the cause.

It amazes me - we have done so much research and learned so much on preventative care that is not being utilized or even publicized. I wrote an article (for a persona blog/site) on the benefits of saurkraut and learned that women who emmigrated from Poland to the United States were 3x more likely to develop breast cancer. This was attributed to changes in their diet - specifically, they consumed much less cabbage in the United States than when they were living in Poland. Cabbage and other veggies in the cabbage family contain incredible compounds and vitams that kill "bad" immune T cells, help increase the production of healthy T cells, target free radicals in the blood stream, and neutralize as well as remove chemo-resistant cancer cells from the body. Women suffering from breast cancer who included cabbage in their diet (at least 3x weekly) are also more likely to overcome it. There is application here for use in people with auto-immune diseases too. That's just one example of information people who are prone to these illnesses and cancers can learn and utlize to protect themselves, keep their health bills down, and decrease the burden on our health care system.

With so little funding available for this vaccine and other preventative treatments - it makes me wonder how much revanue drug companies will lose if these pro-active treamtents work, and if they have a hand in this.

Edited:
*Article stated that women were 3x more likely to develop breast cancer, vs 50% more likely (as I stated.) That specific statitistic/article may or may not have been total crap.
*Disclaimer: I am not a medicial professional. I write a personal outlook and nutritonal blog for others suffering from chronic auto-immune diseases.

[PedOncoDoc]

I wrote an article on the benefits of saurkraut and learned that women who emmigrated from Poland to the United States were 50% more likely to develop breast cancer....
...Cabbage and other veggies in the cabbage family contain incredible compounds and vitams that kill "bad" immune T cells, help increase the production of healthy T cells, target free radicals in the blood stream, and neutralize as well as remove chemo-resistant cancer cells from the body...

As I do research in immunology, I would love to read these peer-reviewed articles. I'm particularly interested in the statement of cabbage contents that overcome chemoresistance (does this function similarly to T cells coexpressing CD161, CD117 and IL-18Ra - Turtle et al, Immunology 2009)and kill "bad immune T cells". Could you please provide references?

Also, please define "bad immune T cells" - to what specific T cell subset are you referring are you referring? Cytotoxic CD8+ T cells that are directly cytotoxic and utilized to fight cancer in the setting of allogeneic stem cell transplantation (my clinical field), Th1, Th2 or Th17 CD4+ T cells, regulatory T cells? Some other T cell subset?

[Stiletto11]

There is a company called TapImmune under the ticker symbol TPIV that is currently in the early trial stages for a breast cancer treatment that only destroys the cancer cells. So far, although early, has been successful and is continuing to the next stage.

[Flicka]

PedOncoDoc - I'll gladly send what references I used for the article in a PM as soon as I get home tomorrow - right now I'm out in the woods and for whatever reason, that blogpage takes forever to load. If they aren't correct, it would be VERY good to know.

[Stiletto11]

Here is a follow up to anyone interested in TapImmune as a caveat I have no connections with this company:


Positive Interim Safety Analysis Achieved in Breast Cancer Patients Treated with HER2/neu Antigens.

January 9, 2013, Seattle WA, TapImmune Inc. (OTCBB: TPIV) has announced that an interim safety analysis on the first five breast cancer patients treated with HER2/neu Class II antigens at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN., did not show any serious adverse events. As a result treatment of the remaining 17 patients in the Phase I study, being conducted at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN will progress. The proprietary HER2/neu Class II antigens, discovered by Keith Knutson Ph.D. and colleagues at Mayo Clinic, show high affinity binding to human MHC proteins for ~84% of the population making it potentially applicable to a broad spectrum of HER2/neu patients compared to other approaches. The Phase I trial is being carried out in breast cancer patients who finished standard Herceptin®- based therapy and are at risk of disease recurrence. The primary endpoints of the study are safety and immunogenicity. Details of the Phase I trial can be found at http://clinicaltrials.gov. TapImmune is sponsoring the Phase I study and has an Exclusive Option to License the antigen technology at the end of Phase I.

TapImmune’s CEO Glynn Wilson added, “This is an important milestone for this program. As we move through clinical development it is essential that we clear these early safety hurdles and move towards development of our complete HER2/neu vaccine”. Mayo Clinic and Dr. K. Knutson have a financial interest in TapImmune, sponsor of the clinical trial.

About Tapimmune Inc.

Taplmmune Inc. is a vaccine technologies company specializing in the development of innovative gene based immunotherapeutics and vaccines in the areas of oncology and infectious disease. The Company's lead product candidates, include vaccines designed to restore and augment antigen presentation and subsequent recognition and killing of cancer cells by the immune system. The Company is also developing TAP-based prophylactic vaccines commercially suitable for the prevention of infectious diseases and as Biodefense agents. As a vaccine component, the gene based TAP technology has the potential to significantly improve the efficacy of both prophylactic and immunotherapeutic vaccines as it addresses a fundamental mechanism for T cell recognition and response. Unlike other vaccine technologies that address only the initiation of immune responses, TAP expression also has the unique ability to enhance the effector function of mature killer T cells. This enhancement of effector function is potentially complementary to any/all vaccine approaches that are designed to enhance cellular responses. The Company is developing cancer vaccines that combine the use of novel antigens together with its TAP expression technology.