Her2/Neu Vaccine

I've just been diagnoses with her2/neu pos, hr pos BC. I read of a study at Brooke Army hosp in texas where they have devloped a vaccine for her2/neu pos BC to be used after treatment, and now, in phase 2 of trials they are finding it reduced recurrence by 50%. Has anyine else been in this trial or know anything about it? ALso, what is the recurrence rate for HER2/neu HR pos BC? I think it might be quite high and I'm feeling very scared. It seems survival rates are low in the stats I'm seeing. I start chemo in a month.

 

On 4/3/2008 pmvjsw wrote:

I've just been diagnoses with her2/neu pos, hr pos BC. I read of a study at Brooke Army hosp in texas where they have devloped a vaccine for her2/neu pos BC to be used after treatment, and now, in phase 2 of trials they are finding it reduced recurrence by 50%. Has anyine else been in this trial or know anything about it? ALso, what is the recurrence rate for HER2/neu HR pos BC? I think it might be quite high and I'm feeling very scared. It seems survival rates are low in the stats I'm seeing. I start chemo in a month.

Hello pmvjsw

this is very interesting to me as I am now going through herceptin treatments for Her2 positive br.ca.. I had my second treatment yesterday and have been told its probably going to be for a year..a vaccine sounds encouraging if they could give me that instead..is this a one time vaccine?  you said its still in clinical trials?  My dr. hasnt mentioned this to me at all, just the pill form of the herceptin.. I am leary of clinical trials..dont know why, I just am!  The idea of taking these chemo drugs that have been approved bother me enough without taking a drug that they arent sure of the side effects..  I guess that is how they do learn though..it just isnt something I would want to try out for myself.. 

thankyou for posting here and letting me know about this vaccine..hope we all hear more about this in the future..

sincerely

Jodie

I talked to someone about it at Brooke Army Medical Centre in Texas, where they are doing the research. It's one shot a month for six months, after you've finished all your treatment. Theresearch has gone through 2 phase and will start the 3rd phase this summer. After that they'll go for FDA approval.Results are very good so far, and they are beginning to est a variation of the vaccine that shows a further 50% reduction in recurrence over the first one. So far minor side effects like itching at the site of the injection. The other thing is that treatment is free in a clinical trial.The trials are being done at a number of different hospitals in the US. Pauline

Jodie: Also, your doctor might not know about it as the first reports on the trials were only just published in a medical journal in February/08. If you Google Brooke Army Medical Center and look around the web site you'll find out more about it. If you call them they can tell you the hospital closest to you where trials are being done. I'm also her2/neu positive -- just got my path report from the surgeon 2 days ago. He told me nothing about it, just focussed on how I had only 3 nodes positive, which he seemed to think was good. I came home and started researching, and now I'm really scared. Do you know anything about higher recurrence rates for her2+? Pauline

 

On 4/4/2008 pmvjsw wrote:

Jodie: Also, your doctor might not know about it as the first reports on the trials were only just published in a medical journal in February/08. If you Google Brooke Army Medical Center and look around the web site you'll find out more about it. If you call them they can tell you the hospital closest to you where trials are being done. I'm also her2/neu positive -- just got my path report from the surgeon 2 days ago. He told me nothing about it, just focussed on how I had only 3 nodes positive, which he seemed to think was good. I came home and started researching, and now I'm really scared. Do you know anything about higher recurrence rates for her2+? Pauline

Dear pmvjsw

My dr. hasnt mentioned this vaccine but I am to see him next week and will ask him about it?  I know that her2 is a more serious agressive nature of br. cancer..but as I read here from others who have been taking the herceptin for a while that it does seem to offer that glimmer of hope and survival time to all of us who have found ourselves with this aggressive beast.. I am also stage lV, it was found in my lung after 6 years in remission..I was axillary node neg, and er..pr. negative..which also is suppose to make it more of a monster to fight..but all i can do is hope that the herceptin shows some progress in slowing it down and keeping it in remission for a while.. my fear is a brain mets showing up, as I have read that her2 pos. and er..pr. neg..breast cancer is bad for metzing to the brain and then is when it gets tricky to treat because of the brain barrier to keep the chemo from helping it there.. I had lymph node involvment this time around in my upper neck area as well, so that tells me that this stuff is trying to travel upwards into my brain.. it would appear that way to me anyway.. but cant walk in fear..just gotta take what lies in front of me now..none of us are promised tomorrow..only each day we wake up and see the sun shining..so we have to be happy about each day and try to just live as normal as we can without the paranoia..even though it is so hard to do..!!  It sounds like maybe they caught yours early and it has not metastasized to other areas yet..  that in itself is good news.. if you are on the herceptin already then that is good too.. I wasnt offered that to prevent recurrence for those 6 years I was in remission..I dont know why?  It may have made the differance in my mets not being here now..but who knows? I'm just glad I have an onco dr. that is ready to fight this beast with everything he can throw at it as it becomes available and approved for use.. i will ask him about the vaccine though.. that sounds very promising!!  thank you for sharing that and the extra info you have mentioned here..

God's Blessings

Jodie

 

On 4/4/2008 pmvjsw wrote:

Jodie: Also, your doctor might not know about it as the first reports on the trials were only just published in a medical journal in February/08. If you Google Brooke Army Medical Center and look around the web site you'll find out more about it. If you call them they can tell you the hospital closest to you where trials are being done. I'm also her2/neu positive -- just got my path report from the surgeon 2 days ago. He told me nothing about it, just focussed on how I had only 3 nodes positive, which he seemed to think was good. I came home and started researching, and now I'm really scared. Do you know anything about higher recurrence rates for her2+? Pauline

P.S.

I just wonder if this is the avastin medicine that is now the vaccine for the herceptin..herceptin is the same kind of medicine as Avastin which was approved recently to be used intraveniously for breast cancer patients..I have already had 6 months of this kind of treatment..infact the herceptin and Avastin is made by the same drug company..

Does anyone else know?  Is this hercepting vaccine the same as the avastin?

just wondered..

Jodie

I was curious so looked it up on the Web. It's not the same

Avastin® (bevacizumab) is
a recombinant humanized antibody to vascular endothelial growth factor
(VEGF). Avastin is designed to bind to and inhibit VEGF, a protein that
plays a critical role in tumor angiogenesis (the formation of new blood
vessels to the tumor).

 Good luck. And people lets not be afraid of trials. Think of all the people who participated in trials to give us all the new breakthroughs.