Cancer Vaccine

orsi

Has anyone experiences with cancer vaccines? I mean sort of immunotherapies?

Momine

Orsi, as far as I know, breast cancer vaccines are still in clinical trials. 

Recently, vaccine was used in a couple of cases of terminal leukemia and worked, but the treatment is quite dangerous and the way I understood it will be a while before this will be available.

SpecialK

I am in a Her2+ immune system stimulating BC vaccine trial now.  I started in the summer of 2012 - agree with momine - this is still a ways off, but progress is being made.

jc254

I participated in a promising phase 2 clinical trial for a breast cancer vaccine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Hopefully, my immune system will fight off any breast cancer cells that try to return. My blood will be tested annually to measure how long my immune response lasts.  There are some women from phase 1 who are approaching 10 years out from vaccination and their immune response remains strong.  Dr. Czernieck's team is currently working to secure funding for a phase 3 nationwide trial. Nothing dangerous about the vaccine- they used my own blood. There is a lot of information about the trial at penniesinaction.org including an explanation in layman's terms.

Momine

jc254, that does sound very promising, and thanks for participating. I have read about this vaccine, and you are right, it is not dangerous. The dangerous treatment, which also works on the vaccine principle, is the one used to treat the otherwise fatal leukemia. 

juneping

that really sounds promising. 

BrooksideVT

I went on your hospital's website, JC254, and was happy to see they are working on a number of alternative studies.  One of my friends with a different cancer is receiving some experimental infusions in Boston.  Dana Farber, maybe?  His treatment is not chemo, not vaccine, something unclear: Biological something?  Immune something?  It's good to know these trials are taking place.

FireKracker

I love reading about progress

Thanks for sharing 

farmerlucy

Thanks for the link to pennieinaction.org.  That is really exciting.

jc254

Dr. Czerniecki and his team are ready to start a phase 3 nationwide trial.  Last I heard, they are close to securing the necessary funding. I'm posting an excerpt from the website here, to illustrate the frustrating impact lack of funding has on the search for a cure...

 

If these results are really so good, why hasn’t money already been obtained for the phase 3 trial?

The first two phase 1-2 trials were generously supported by prestigious “R01” awards from the National Institutes of Health, which funds the bulk of health-related research conducted at Universities and Biomedical Research Institutes across the United States. Unfortunately, NIH “caps” their awards at $500,000 per year for 4-5 years (2-2.5 million per grant, maximum). Such funds can support early trials involving 30-40 subjects, but we calculate that a multicenter phase-3 trial will cost around 15 million dollars. The NIH simply does not have a common funding mechanism that covers something this large. Likewise, private funding organizations such as the American Cancer Society and the Susan G. Komen Foundation place most of their emphasis on awards of similar, smaller scale.

Another avenue would be the formation of a startup company and the attraction of venture capital. Unfortunately, the cancer therapy options that are most profitable are not necessarily the ones that are best and most desirable from the standpoint of the patient. Outside investors may not be able to resist selling out to a generous offer from a large pharmaceutical company. The pharmaceutical company may in turn decide that there is more money to be made selling standard chemotherapy than preventative vaccines and “shelve” their newly-acquired technology. Dr. Czerniecki and his colleagues strongly believe in the entrepreneurial spirit that drives innovation in the United States, but we must acknowledge that we should first strive for a transparent, fully independent demonstration of the vaccine’s effectiveness. Only after the vaccine’s value is common knowledge, and there is considerable demand from the public for this new preventative, should the technology be transferred to business interests. This approach will ensure that the vaccine eventually gets to the people who need it. 

farmerlucy

I'd be very interested in getting in the trial if anyone hear about it in the future.