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Women may get vaccine to protect against breast cancer
June, 05 2010
Women may get vaccine to protect against breast cancer
A vaccine designed to protect against breast cancer is expected to be tested on women within the next two years.
It has been tested on mice and results suggest that it could prevent tumours appearing and attack those that are already present. If tests on women show similar results, it could be offered to women around the age of 40, when the risk of developing the disease rises.
Researchers hope that it will kill off up to 70 per cent of breast cancers and save more than 8,000 lives a year in Britain. Vincent Tuohy, an immunologist who developed the vaccine at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, said: “We truly believe that a preventive breast cancer vaccine will do to breast cancer what the polio vaccine has done to polio. We think that it will provide substantial protection. Our view is that breast cancer is a completely preventable disease.”
Dr Tuohy said that his vaccine made the patient’s immune system attack a specific protein found in most breast cancer cells and the mammary tissues of breastfeeding women. For this reason, it would not be given to women who planned to breastfeed.
“The frequency of women who breastfeed in their early forties and above is very low, so we are looking at vaccinating women against the disease from this stage of life onwards,” Dr Tuohy said.
He said that he hoped to test the vaccine on women in two small clinical trials next year to evaluate its safety and dosage levels. Even if the tests are successful it is unlikely that a vaccine would be available for at least ten years.
The research is reported in the latest edition of the journal Nature Medicine.The vaccine was tested on mice bred to develop breast cancer. Researchers injected six mice with a vaccine made from the protein alpha-lactalbumin and another chemical to boost the immune system’s response to the vaccine. Six other mice were also given a dummy vaccine. After ten months, all mice that received the dummy had developed serious breast tumours. None of the mice given the real vaccine showed any signs of similar tumours.
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in Britain and kills about 12,000 women every year.
Caitlin Palframan of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: “This research could have important implications for how we might prevent breast cancer in the future. However, this is an early stage study, and we look forward to seeing the results of large-scale clinical trials to find out if this vaccine would be safe and effective in humans.
“Crucially, there are already things that women can do to reduce their breast cancer risk, including reducing alcohol consumption, maintaining a healthy weight and taking regular exercise.”
• Expecting men to participate in antenatal classes and to attend the birth of their children can undermine their abilities as fathers, an expert claims. Dr Jonathan Ives, head of the Centre for Biomedical Ethics at the University of Birmingham, said that men were limited to a passive supporting role just as fatherhood dawns. “Having begun the fathering role already feeling a failure may destroy his confidence,” said Dr Ives, who will speak next month at a two-day conference on pregnancy.
According to TimesOnline http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7140886.ece
