The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7496 p392
5 April 2008

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Breast cancer vaccine

Established breast tumours in mice were no longer detectable after treatment with a vaccine expressing an HER-2 antigen in a recent study (Cancer Research 2008;68:1979).

The vaccine was able to treat large established breast tumours and lung metastatic disease which expressed HER-2, the target of the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab.

Protection by a patient’s own immune system avoids the need for repeated, inconvenient and expensive infusion of antibodies, the researchers suggest.