A revolutionary jab that could both prevent and treat breast cancer has been developed.
The drug – to be tested on women as early as next year – could wipe out up to 70 per cent of breast cancers, saving more than 8,000 lives a year in the UK alone.
Its creator Dr Vincent Tuohy said the effects could be ‘monumental’.
‘We believe that this vaccine will someday be used to prevent breast cancer in adult women in the same way that vaccines have prevented many childhood diseases,’ he said.
The theory behind the vaccine could eventually be used to target other types of cancer as well, he added.
The drug targets a protein called alphalactalbumin that lurks in most breast cancer tumours.
Having the jab revs up the immune system, priming it to destroy the protein as it appears and so stop tumours forming.
It also harnesses the power of the immune system to shrink pre-existing growths by up to half.
Dr Tuohy’s team tested the vaccine on rodents that were genetically prone to breast cancer.
Those which did not have the jab developed breast cancers by the age of ten months, but all of those that were immunised remained cancer-free, the journal Nature Medicine reports.
Dr Tuohy, an expert in the workings of the immune system from one of America’s top hospitals, said: ‘It was a yes/no result – it was as clear as a bell. We really believe that breast cancer is a completely preventable disease.’
The search for cancer vaccines has until now been hampered by fears that healthy tissue would be destroyed along with tumours. But this drug targets only the protein and, therefore, diseased cells.
The only drawback is that alpha-lactalbumin is also found in healthy breasts when they are producing milk – so a woman who has the jab while young could not breastfeed in the future, or her immune system would respond.
This should not affect her ability to have a baby, however.
Dr Tuohy, of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, said: ‘Tumours are like drunks in a bar, saying and doing things they shouldn’t and one of these things is expressing (making) alpha-lactalbumin and we are taking advantage of that.’
Finding similar proteins for other cancers, such as bowel or prostate tumours, could lead to vaccines against other diseases.
The researchers, whose work was funded by the U.S. government, said: ‘Our data provides experimental support for developing safe and effective protection against breast tumours, and potentially tumours derived from other organs, by targeted vaccination.
‘It is not difficult to envision an adult vaccination plan patterned on the childhood vaccine strategy that would provide prophylaxis against adult-onset diseases including, but not limited to, breast cancer.’
Dr Tuohy hopes to test the jab on women for the first time next year, in two small trials. One would look at its ability to shrink tumours in women with advanced breast cancer and a few other treatment options.
The second would involve young women whose family history puts them at high risk of the disease.
The trials would focus on how safe the jab is and what sort of doses should be given.
The need for longer studies on bigger numbers of women means it will be at least ten years before it hits the market.
But then, Dr Tuohy believes it could be offered to all women over 40 – the age at which risk of breast cancer starts to mount. It could also be given to younger women genetically predisposed to the disease.
He also claims the jab could one day ‘eliminate’ breast cancer if the protein causes, as he believes, far more than the accepted figure of 70 per cent of tumours.
He said: ‘If it works in humans the way it works in mice, this will be monumental. Breast cancer affects everyone. We all have wives, mothers, sisters and daughters, so we are all affected by it.’
Dr Joseph Crowe, director of the Breast Centre at the Cleveland Clinic, said: ‘Dr Tuohy is not a breast cancer researcher, he’s an immunologist, so his approach is completely different – attacking the tumour before it can develop. It is a simple concept, yet one that has not been explored until now.’
Dr Caitlin Palframan, of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: ‘This is an early-stage study, and we look forward to seeing the results of large-scale clinical trials to find out if this vaccine would be safe and effective in humans.
‘Crucially, there are already things women can do to reduce their breast cancer risk including reducing alcohol consumption, maintaining a healthy weight and taking regular exercise.’
Breast cancer is the UK’s most common form of the disease, with more than 45,000 cases diagnosed a year and 1,000 lives lost a month.
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