Breast Cancer Awareness Ribbon

Scientists have made a discovery they say could lead to a vaccine to prevent and cure breast cancer, a common and deadly disease that afflicts millions of women around the world.

The experimental vaccine developed by researchers at Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Institute in Ohio was 100 percent effective in preventing breast cancer in a group of mice specially bred to develop the disease. The vaccine, which has been in the works for the past eight years, also stopped the growth of existing tumors.

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide, and there are approximately a half million new cases reported each year. The disease is notoriously hard to cure. It often recurs within 10 years, despite treatments thought to be effective at the time of diagnosis.

Lead researcher Vincent Tuohy says the experimental vaccine works by stimulating the immune system to protect the body against the development of breast cancer. Until now, the major hurdle for researchers working on cancer vaccines has been finding ways to avoid setting off auto-immune responses in cancer patients. Autoimmunity occurs when the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue or organ systems.

The resulting inflammation can trigger an even more aggressive form of breast cancer. But vaccine researchers have found a way to target proteins that are only present in breast tumors but not in healthy breast tissue, according to Tuohy.

Tuohy says the vaccine kept the specially-bred, breast cancer-prone lab mice completely tumor-free.

“We found the first way of creating a self-vaccine that can be used prophylactically, in a preventive manner, to protect us against a disease before we get it just like polio and measles,” said Vincent Tuohy.

Experts say a woman has a 12 percent risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer over her lifetime. But according to the US National Cancer Institute, women who have inherited two abnormal genes, called BRCA (BROCK-AH) 1 and BRCA (BROCK-AH) 2, have a much higher, 60 percent risk of developing breast cancer by age 90.

Becca Martello was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer at age 39. She underwent surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and had her uterus removed to prevent the cancer from recurring.

Breast cancer runs in Martello’s family and she’s thrilled at the prospect of a vaccine to prevent the deadly disease.

“I can’t really believe it yet,” said Becca Martello. “I’m just so thrilled, [I have] goose bumps; just amazing.”

Meanwhile, the researchers at Cleveland Clinic plan to ask US regulators for permission to begin human safety trials of the vaccine within the next year. The breast cancer vaccine would be targeted at women age 40 and older.

Lead researcher Vincent Touhy says the breast cancer vaccine project was inspired by the success childhood immunization programs have had in preventing infectious diseases in young people. But no such medically effective safeguards have been available for people middle-aged and older:

“And yet they confront these horrific diseases like breast cancer and prostate cancer and colon cancer and so forth and I thought this is the giant hole.” he said. “We don’t have a similar preventive vaccine program for adult diseases.”

Tuohy and his colleagues describe their research in an article this week in the journal Nature Medicine.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A doctor from the Cleveland Clinic claims he has developed a vaccine to prevent and possibly cure breast cancer.

A study, published Sunday, reports Dr. Vincent Tuohy found that a single vaccination made up of antigen a-lactalbumin (lactation protein) prevents breast cancer tumors from forming, while stopping the growth of already existing tumors. *READ STUDY HERE*

A spokesperson for the Cleveland Clinic says enrollment in human trials could begin as early as next year.

Women over the age of 40 or that have the breast cancer gene BRCA 1 or 2, will be vaccinated first because the vaccine targets a woman’s lactation protein. Once the lactation protein is targeted, a woman’s milk supply is affected.

According to the spokesperson, Dr. Tuohy found the target in an unhealthy tumor that is not typically found in a healthy person. He targeted a protein called a-lactalbumin, which is found in the majority of breast cancers, but not found in healthy women unless they are lactating. The antigen is injected which then searches and eliminates tumor growth.

In other words, the vaccine can help boost a woman’s immune system to target a-lactalbumin without damaging healthy breast tissue.

The Doctor says he is confident in his findings and believes it will have a massive impact on fighting the disease.

“We have designed a vaccine that is designed to prevent breast cancer the same way we vaccinate against polio and measles,” Tuohy told Fox 8 News, “I think the same strategy could be applied for a variety of different cancers and diseases as we age…and I can’t really wait to see my dream and that vision come true.”

Scientists at Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic are touting a new prototype vaccine to prevent breast cancer as “promising.” This follows tests performed on mice by the researchers. The scientists said a single vaccination was shown to prevent breast cancer tumors from forming in mice, and also stymied the growth of existing tumors.

The vaccine contains a protein found in most breast cancers, but not found in healthy women, except during lactation, according to Dr. Vincent Tuohy, the study’s principal investigator and an immunologist at the Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute. Tuohy says this allows the vaccine to direct a woman’s immune system to target this protein without damaging healthy breast tissue.

“We can protect women from breast cancer, but if it destroyed their normal breast, it’s an unacceptable side-effect, so we had to avoid that,” Tuohy said.

Tuohy now wants to move forward in testing the vaccine in human patients. Enrollment could begin next year according to the Cleveland Clinic. Tuohy acknowledges cancers have been cured in mice before without that success transitioning to humans, but thinks this vaccine’s chances of success are “promising.”

“It’s kind of like an application of immunologic judo, using the natural changes that occur in a woman’s needs,” said Tuohy. “A decrease in the use of the breast for breastfeeding, and an increase in the breast’s risk of developing tumors. We’re taking advantage of that. That hasn’t been done before.”

The inspiration for the research comes from the childhood vaccination program that has been successful in preventing diseases like polio and measles, according to Tuohy.

“It just struck me as a giant hole in our health care that we don’t have preventive vaccines that mimic the childhood vaccination program for adult diseases like breast cancer,” said Tuohy.

The tests have been restricted to mice so far. Tuohy said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will guide researchers through what type of toxicity studies they want done, and usually they require other species — rats, for example. Tuohy says he doesn’t anticipate any difference in results between mice and rats, but he would not second-guess the FDA on their request for tests on different species.

The FDA has granted approval to two cancer-prevention vaccines: cervical and liver cancer. However, these vaccines target viruses, while the one tested by the Cleveland Clinic targets cancer formation. If any human testing proves successful, the strategy would be to vaccinate women 40 and over as well as younger women with a heightened risk of breast cancer. Tuohy says there is no funding for human trials at this point, but it has been applied for. However, he speculates it will take at least 10 years to get the vaccine to normal, healthy women at risk of developing the cancer.

“We have to try it. It looks to me to be extremely promising, and until I see a better idea I’d like to try this.”