Early Study Hints That Breast Cancer Vaccine Might Work MONDAY,
April 2 (HealthDay News) -- A vaccine to prevent breast cancer's
return in women with a history of the disease has triggered the
desired immune response in early research. The vaccine under
development is aimed at preventing recurrence in women who have
a form of tumor known as HER2-positive, according to researcher
Dr. Diane Hale, a research resident in general surgery at Brooke
Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, in San Antonio. She is
set to present results of the study on Monday at the annual
meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in
Chicago. The vaccine, known as the "HER2-based peptide vaccine
AE37," is designed to harness the power of the patient's immune
system, based on its reaction to a cancer-linked peptide
(protein). "The theory is that once you form that [immune]
response to the specific peptide, if the body has a recurrence,
it will recognize that cancer as a bad thing, a foreign thing,"
Hale explained in an as