乳腺癌疫苗: 让人看到希望的早期结果
BREAST CANCER VACCINE: PROMISING EARLY RESULTS
华盛顿大学医学院(Washington University School of Medicine)开发的一种乳腺癌疫苗的早期临床试验在一项小规模研究中显示出希望。研究人员发现，这种疫苗能触发患者的免疫系统攻击肿瘤细胞，并有助于减缓癌症的发展。
这种疫苗的作用是使免疫系统细胞集结到一种叫做乳腺蛋白- A的蛋白质，这种蛋白质几乎只存在于乳腺组织中。虽然研究人员不知道这种蛋白质在健康乳腺组织中扮演了什么角色，但他们知道，乳腺肿瘤在异常高的水平上表现出来。疫苗促使某些白细胞去寻找并消灭携带有乳腺蛋白-A的细胞。
这项研究包括了14名患有转移性乳腺癌的患者，这些患者都表达了乳腺蛋白- A。因为这是第一阶段的试验，所以这项研究主要着眼于疫苗的安全性。研究人员发现，受试者几乎没有出现副作用，报告了8个分为轻度或中度的事件，包括皮疹、接种部位的压痛和轻度流感样症状。没有严重或危及生命的副作用发生。
基于第一阶段研究的结果，研究人员目前正在计划在新诊断的乳腺癌患者中进行一项规模更大的临床试验，从理论上讲，这些患者应该比已经接受过广泛癌症治疗的患者拥有更强健的免疫系统。
“如果我们在治疗开始时给病人注射疫苗，他们的免疫系统就不应该像转移性疾病患者那样受到损害，”马里兰州Siteman癌症中心的乳腺癌外科医生、第一阶段试验的领导者William Gillanders说。“既然我们有充分的证据表明疫苗是安全的，我们认为在新诊断的患者身上进行测试将使我们对该疗法的有效性有更好的了解。”
BREAST CANCER VACCINE: PROMISING EARLY RESULTS
An early clinical trial of a breast-cancer vaccine developed at Washington University School of Medicine has shown promise in a small study. Researchers found that the vaccine triggered patients’ immune systems to attack tumor cells and helped slow the cancer’s progression.
The vaccine works by causing the immune system to home in on a protein called mammaglobin-A, which is found almost exclusively in breast tissue. Though researchers don’t know what role this protein plays in healthy breast tissue, they do know that breast tumors express it at abnormally high levels. The vaccine prompts certain white blood cells to seek out and destroy cells carrying the mammaglobin-A protein.
The study included 14 patients with metastatic breast cancer that expressed mammaglobin-A. Because it was a phase I trial, the study was designed to look primarily at the vaccine’s safety. Researchers found that participants experienced few side effects, reporting eight events classified as mild or moderate, including rash, tenderness at the vaccination site and mild flu-like symptoms. No severe or life-threatening side effects occurred.
Based on the results of the phase I study, researchers are now planning a larger clinical trial to test the vaccine in patients with newly diagnosed breast-cancer, who, in theory, should have more robust immune systems than patients who already have had extensive cancer therapy.
“If we give the vaccine to patients at the beginning of treatment, their immune systems should not be compromised like they are in patients with metastatic disease,” says William Gillanders, MD, a Washington University breast-cancer surgeon at Siteman Cancer Center and the leader of the phase I trial. “Now that we have good evidence that the vaccine is safe, we think testing it in newly diagnosed patients will give us a better idea of the effectiveness of the therapy.”
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