Vaccine hope for breast cancer

A VACCINE for breast cancer is about to be trialled by Australian researchers to stop the cancer returning and could eventually be used in other common cancers.

The jab will not prevent cancer in the first place but will be given to people who have already been diagnosed with the disease.

The hope is the vaccine will prompt the patient’s own immune cells to recognise and eliminate cancer cells.

And it could be personalised and built on samples from the patient’s own tumour, so if the cancer returns, the immune system would fight it off.

The jab will also be trialled in combination with immunotherapy drugs to see whether it enhances these treatments by targeting the right cancer cells.

Professor Roberta Mazzieri from the University of Queensland has been awarded a grant from the National Breast Cancer Foundation of Australia to test a series of vaccines for triple negative breast cancer and brain-metastatic breast cancer in mice.

Cancerous tumours spread because they hide from the immune system and the vaccine would provide information to the immune system so it knows how to find the cancer cells, Prof Mazzieri said.

“The project is exploring what is the best information to provide to the immune system and the best way to deliver that information,” she said.

The research is the forerunner to human clinical trials, which could start in the next three to four years.

The project is one of 16 game-changing research grants worth a combined $10 million awarded by the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Other projects include a Garvan Institute project to investigate the JNK protein in breast cancer which could be targeted with a drug to stop the growth of metastatic cancer cells.

The University of Melbourne is developing a new online tool that will estimate a woman’s personal risk of a second breast cancer to help her make a fully informed decision about whether to undergo a double mastectomy.

Professor John Hopper from the University of Melbourne has been given a grant to explore whether digital mammograms can improve breast screening by identifying risk factors including breast density.

National Breast Cancer Foundation chief executive Sarah Hosking said the projects would help the foundation’s push to eliminate breast cancer deaths by 2030.