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news.Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center has received FDA approval for a Phase I clinical trial designed to study a breast cancer vaccine.
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The trial, which is for women whose breast cancer has recurred after surgery, and is stable after having only partially responded to salvage chemotherapy, will be available for patient entry in the first quarter of 2008.
According to Dr. Deisseroth, this vaccine is unique from all other approaches in its two-pronged approach: First, it is designed to boost the response of the aged immune system by replacing a potent immunostimulatory signal which is missing in older people. Secondly, the target of the vaccine, MUC-1, is part of cancers of the breast, colon, lung, ovary and prostate where it’s over expression predicts for shortened survival and resistance to therapy.
Pre-clinical animal studies conducted by the Deisseroth laboratory have shown that the vaccine boosts immunity within 14 to 21 days, and that the immunity lasts for at least a year.
Albert Deisseroth, president and CEO of Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center (SKCC), said: “This vaccine will be administered for recurrent breast cancer and is the first cancer vaccine to be specifically designed for the aged immune system which often fails to respond to vaccinations for infectious diseases as well as cancer.”