This preventative vaccine is intended for women who have survived so-called “triple negative” breast cancer, the most aggressive and deadly form of the disease. The first phase of the trial is due to start very soon.
A major advance. While a new treatment, aimed at extending the survival time of certain breast cancer patients, has been available in France since November 1, 2021, researchers across the Atlantic are testing the very first preventive vaccine. A first, reports an article by The voice of the North. The first phase of the trial, which will take place at the Cleveland Clinic’s research center, is due to start very soon and will last until September 2022.
The objective of this preventive vaccine: to fight against “triple negative” cancer, more aggressive and fatal, which affects around 9,000 patients per year. 18 to 24 participants who have survived this type of breast cancer and who are at high risk of recurrence will be administered the vaccine. In total, these women will receive three doses, with a duration of two weeks between each injection. They will then be accompanied for 84 days to monitor any side effects as well as “effects on the immune system”, explains Dr. Thomas Budd, head of the study.
Test on healthy women
If this phase is successful, the next step for scientists will be to expand the test to more women at different stages of the disease. However, it should take at least ten years before the vaccine is fully available. “In the long term, we hope to produce a real preventive vaccine that would be administered to healthy women to prevent them from developing triple negative breast cancer, the form of breast cancer for which we have the least effective treatments”, specifies the researcher, very optimistic.