The therapeutic breast cancer vaccine AE37 uses a peptide antigen of a cancer gene known as HER-2/neu. This gene/protein is present in many types of cells, but it is over-expressed in a high proportion of breast cancers as well as many others.
Researchers say that they are seeking to evaluate the efficacy of two anti-cancer vaccines targeted to the HER 2 protein, which is expressed in 60 to 70 percent of all breast cancers.
Researchers believe that if the woman if an immune responder, she has double the survival rates as compared to non-responder.
The results were published in the recent Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The results were presented by Dr. George Peoples of the Brooke Army Medical Center at this year's annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
Though metastatic breast cancer is treatable but it is not fully curable. The breast cancer vaccines are one possible way to try to control the disease's spread.
The study found the vaccine to be safe and well-tolerated in women whose cancer has not spread to the lymph nodes in a phase I study. The vaccine is being developed by Antigen Express, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Generex.
