ONS Connect - September 2008 - (Page 7)

vaccine may Combat breast Cancer recurrence in high-risk women I n a small study, vaccination with an immunogenic HER/neu peptide led to lower breast cancer rec Develop urrence in a subset of high-risk women. Researchers conducted clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of E75, an immunogenic peptide derived from the HER2/ neu protein. Although E75 has been studied previously, in the current study, researchers combined E75 with granulocyte macrophage–colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) to treat 186 patients with breast cancer (95 axillary-node positive and 91 axillary-node negative). Both groups of patients received conventional adjuvant therapy (endocrine therapy and chemotherapy). All patients were clinically disease free at enrollment. Forty-nine node-positive patients received escalating doses of E75 in an initial stage and an alteration of this schedule in a second stage, and 46 were assigned to observation only. Fifty-two node-negative patients received E75 plus various doses of GM-CSF on one of several different inoculation schedules, and 39 were assigned to observation. The trial was designed to discover optimal dosing for node-negative patients. Toxicities were minimal, and dose-dependent immunologic responses to the vaccine were observed. An analysis at 20 months revealed cancer recurrence rates of 5.6% in vaccinated patients and 14.2% in observation patients (p = 0.04). Vaccine-specific immunity declined over time: After a median follow-up of 26 months, the difference in recurrence between vaccinated and unvaccinated patients (8.3% and 14.8%) was no longer significant. Peoples, G.E., Holmes, J.P., Hueman, M.T., Mittendorf, E.A., Amin, A., et al. (2008). Combined clinical trial results of a HER2/neu (E75) vaccine for the prevention of recurrence in high-risk breast cancer patients: U.S. Military Cancer Institute clinical trials group study I-01 and I-02. Clinical Cancer Research, 14(3), 797–803. destined to develop the disease, according to a new study. The vaccine offers lifelong protection against a disease that the mice were destined to have. It targets the precancerous state with the aim of preventing the cancer from developing. The vaccine mounts an immune response against prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA), a membrane protein that is overexpressed in about a third of early-stage prostate cancers but increases with all prostate tumors as they grow and advance. Researchers tested the two-part prime-boost vaccination in eight-weekold mice that were genetically altered to develop prostate cancer later in life. The first vaccine delivers a fragment of DNA that coded for PSCA, thus producing an influx of PSCA protein to alter the immune system. The booster shot, given two weeks later, uses a modified horse virus to deliver the PSCA gene. In the experimental group, 2 of the 20 mice developed prostate cancer at one year, whereas all of the control mice had died from the disease. In the two mice in the experimental group that developed prostate tumors, both had very small tumors that did not progress. Garcia-Hernandez Mde, L., Gray, A., Hubby, B., Klinger, O.J., & Kast, W.M. (2008). Prostate stem cell antigen vaccination induces a longterm protective immune response against prostate cancer in the absence of autoimmunity. Cancer Research, 68(3), 861–869. vaccine prevents prostate Cancer in mice esearchers have developed a prostate cancer vaccine that prevents cancer in 90% of mice genetically pre- R Contributing Editor Deborah McBride, RN, MSN, CPON ®, is a nurse at the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center and a faculty member at Samuel Merritt College in Oakland, CA. September 2008 ONS CONNECT 7

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ONS Connect - September 2008

ONS Connect - September 2008 Contents Editor's Note Just In Advances in Prostate Cancer Treatment A Year in the Life - Month Nine Web Connect Capitol Connection Manage Infusion Reactions From Cetuximab Notice Nursing Now Caregiver Care Oropharyngeal Cancer in Men Associated with HPV Working for You Calendar of Events Staying on Top

ONS Connect - September 2008

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