Funded by the Cancer Vaccine Coalition (CVC)
Over 310,000 people get breast cancer each year in the US. About 20% of breast cancers are caused by a protein called HER2 and are aggressive. We have developed a vaccine called WOKVAC that trains the immune system to identify and kill cancer cells that have high levels of HER2. Early results in patients show that the vaccine is safe and can create a cancer-killing immune system response. We are now conducting a patient trial where patients with HER2+ breast cancer get the vaccine along with their normal treatment before they have surgery to remove the tumor. Our goal is to have the vaccine create cancer-killing immune cells that will work together with their normal treatment to kill the cancer cells and protect the patient from the cancer for years or decades. So far, we have given the vaccine to 16 patients on this trial. The vaccine has been safe, and early results are encouraging. We are expanding the trial to 25 patients to better help us decide if other patients should get this vaccine. We are looking at how well the patients do after getting the vaccine and looking to see if the vaccine increases the number of cancer-killing cells in their tumors and blood.
