Testing begins tomorrow on a breast cancer vaccine at Windber Medical Center in Somerset County. [RESEARCH NOTE : See  Windber Medical Center (2001)  as this is a 2001 article]

The vaccine against the her-2-neu breast cancer peptide is being tested on women who have already had breast cancer and have completed treatment.

Windber, a member of the Conemaugh Health Care System, and Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D. C. are beginning the first phase of the trial that will determine proper dose and how long the vaccine should be given. Participants will receive one dose per month for six months. 

The vaccine, developed by [Multiple Peptide Systems] in San Diego, targets the her-2-neu protein peptide because this peptide is expressed from the tumors of two-thirds of people who get breast cancer, said Diane Pringle, executive director of the Joyce Murtha Breast Cancer Center at Windber.

Windber researchers hope the vaccine will extend survival and reduce the chances of the disease recurring, said [Richard Idem Somiari (born 1968(est.))], scientific director for the Windber Research Institute.

"The vaccine works in a way which targets a specific peptide or protein in the breast cancer cell and stops it from expanding," said [Col. Craig David Shriver, MD (born 1958)], chief of surgical oncology at Walter Reed". The vaccine boosts the immune system, stimulating its response against foreign invaders." 

University of Washington researchers in June 2000 announced the results of a study that showed promising results in human trials of a similar vaccine developed by Corixa Corp., a biotechnology company in Seattle. That study showed that the her-2-neu protein can stimulate an immune response in cancer patients.

Dr. Mary L. Disis, a University of Washington associate professor of medicine, and colleagues based their work on the discovery that many tumors elicit a naturally occurring response in cancer patients. This means that the body is treating some tumor components as a foreign tissue. The response, however, is typically at a very low level and inadequate to thwart a recurrence of the cancerous cells.

Identification of the her-2-neu protein as a tumor antigen was the first step in turning up the "volume" on the body's response to cancer cells. Disis and her colleagues at Corixa identified some of the immune-response activating portions of the her-2-neu protein and manipulated these protein peptides to optimize their capacity to trigger an immune system vs. tumor response.

The first participant in Windber's trial is a Cambria County nurse in her 40s who completed breast cancer treatment in August. "She's at high risk for developing cancer again," Pringles aid. "That's why she's in [the trial]."

Researchers  believe the vaccine would be most effective on women who are less than a year out from cancer treatment because they want to start building up the immune response before the cancer is likely to recur.

About 60 women - 30 who will receive the vaccine and 30 in a control group - are needed for this first phase that will continue through September 2003.

Walter Reed has been testing the vaccine on patients who have had prostate cancer, which also expresses this protein and started the breast trial earlier this year. So far, participants have experienced no side effects with the vaccine, Pringles aid.

Phase II of the breast cancer trial will involve many more women once scientists determine a correct dose. Windber also plans to test the vaccine soon on prostate cancer patients.

Windber is one of the research partners in this project with Walter Reed because it already joined with the military hospital in offering the Dr. Dean Ornish Heart Disease Reversal Program. The Somerset hospital is building a 10,000-square-foot breast care center this summer.