How a Vaccine May Change the Entire Breast Cancer Culture

By Vera Viner

A few months ago, a famous Actress – Angelina Jolie – made headlines and brought media attention toward breast cancer, mastectomies, and BRCA1/BRCA2 mutations. However, this woman is not the only who has had to choose whether to remove a body part or undergo a strict screening regime. Thousands of women across the United States undergo mastectomies and lumpectomies every year. In fact, approximately 40,000 American women perish from this disease every single year.

However, there may be a way to stop women from having to go through these tough decisions and difficult treatments. Dr. Vincent Tuohy and his team from the Cleveland Clinic are working on starting clinical trials for the first preventive breast cancer vaccine. This vaccine was able to keep 100% of mice prone to developing breast cancer from contracting the condition.

“There’s a certain tragic component to all of this,” Dr. Vincent Tuohy spoke toKnow More TV, mentioning Jolie’s mastectomy. “Angelina did something defensively because she is in a situation where her only option is surgery—so she dealt with it now by removing her breasts … In other cases, we wait until the breast cancer is discovered, and then we proactively attack the tumor with all sorts of offense, including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.”

Tuohy has spent the last 11 years developing the preventive vaccine and has targeted both mice in the lab as well as human breast tumors. The vaccine is positioned to identify a particular protein – alpha lactalbumin – found in both lactating breast cells and cancerous breast cells. If the preventive method is found both safe and effective, it would only be administered to women who are past their childbearing years.

However, there has been some resistance for funding the breast cancer vaccine toward clinical trials. The medical community has not been fully ready to accept immunology research as a standard way for curing cancer.

“We need to promote more of the innovative research such as the type Dr. Tuohy is doing,” Dr.  Carol Fabian, a medical breast oncologist, told the source. “I think part of the resistance may be because he’s an immunologist rather than someone with a track record in cancer research. But really, we need to be looking at other alternatives and I think he’s onto something.”

The whole breast cancer industry may be another obstacle in the way. For instance, the Komen Foundation turned down funding the vaccine on THREE separate occasions. With the amount of money to be made for diagnosing and treating breast cancer, it may be difficult to push through a potential cure for the condition as a whole.

“Breast cancer is a huge and varied industry and one that is highly profitable and may not necessarily be inclined to sacrifice itself on the altar of prevention,” said Dr. Kathleen Ruddy of the Breast Health and Healing Foundation. “Of the estimated $50 billion devoted to breast cancer (diagnosis, treatment, support, philanthropy, and research) less than two percent is spent either on understanding the causes of the disease or working toward primary prevention of the disease.”

One leading breast cancer blog mentioned that the major topic of discussion at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology, held from May 31 to June 3, was on cancer vaccines and other immunotherapy drugs. These areas seem to be most promising and are leading the way in treatment and prevention of cancer.

“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,” said Dr. Tuohy.