Novel vaccine cuts recurrence in HER2 positive breast cancer patients

A new breast cancer vaccine candidate, GP2, provides further evidence of the potential of immunotherapy in preventing disease recurrence, reports EurekAlert. This is especially the case for high-risk patients when it is combined with a powerful immunotherapy drug.

These findings are being presented by The University of Texas MA Anderson Cancer Center at the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco.

One of only a few vaccines of its kind in development, GP2 has been shown to be safe and effective for breast cancer patients, reducing recurrence rates by 57%. Further, women with the highest over-expression of HER2 (known as HER2 +3) had no cancer recurrences when they were administered the vaccine after completing treatment with trastuzumab (Herceptin, from Roche), a type of immunotherapy drug known as a monoclonal antibody. HER2 is an oncoprotein that promotes tumor growth and is expressed to some extent in 75-80% of breast cancers.