NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In a series of studies, a combination vaccine approach has inhibited the progression of preneoplastic lesions in a mouse model of breast cancer, Italian researchers report. They say, however, that the work is not directly applicable to the treatment of breast cancer in women.
“We used a combined DNA and cell vaccine,” senior investigator Frederica Cavallo told Reuters Health. “This combination efficiently induces the regression of preneoplastic lesions as shown by concordant pathologic observations and gene expression analysis.”
In particular, Dr. Cavallo of the University of Turin in Orbassano and colleagues found that the vaccine consistently inhibited these lesions in a murine HER-2/neu mammary carcinogenesis model. These animals, the investigators say in the March issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, “are genetically predestined to die because of multiple, fast-growing, invasive and metastasising carcinomas.”
The primary vaccine used plasmids encoding portions of the oncogenic protein rp185neu. This was followed a week later with a booster vaccination with rp185nue+ allogeneic cells secreting interferon gamma.
In total, 48% of mice treated in this manner remained tumor free for the 32 week observation period. This was a significant improvement over control mice and those that received the primary vaccine alone.
These findings, Dr. Cavallo stressed, do not “suggest a new way to treat cancer patients,” but do provide “a step forward in the immunological inhibition of preneoplastic lesions.”
Source: J Clin Invest 2004;113:709-717. [ Google search on this article ]
MeSH Headings:Breast Neoplasms: Neoplasms: Neoplasms by Site: Recombinant Proteins: Vaccines, Synthetic: Genes, erbB-2: Genes, erbB: Cancer Vaccines: DiseasesCopyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
