Precis On Progress: The Virus And The Vaccine

By Dr. Kathleen T. Ruddy

On Tuesday, April 9, Loreen Arbus kindly hosted a summit on “Tumor Viruses, Preventive Vaccines, and the Global Burden of Women’s Cancers”.  It was a complete success.  Arbus’ tender, cheerful, and generous hospitality in her splendid home overlooking Central Park set the stage for a magnificent forum that included a robust discussion of the human mammary tumor virus and the world’s first preventive breast cancer vaccine.  Members of the Harvard School of Public Health, the Breast Health and Healing Foundation, and Arbus Foundation, the Women’s Global Initiative, and a legion of others – including important members of the press – joined in a lively conversation about tumor viruses, preventive vaccines, and what we can do together to advance this work.  Representatives from the Cerebral Palsy Foundation in New York City joined us to provide their perspective on the challenges facing cancer screening for women with disabilities.  As an advocate for prevention of breast cancer, I can assure you the Breast Health and Healing Foundation will take immediate steps to spearhead an initiative to address the issues raised by these important stakeholders.

Drs. Pogo, Melena, and Etkind were on hand to answer questions about their research on the human breast cancer virus.  And Dr. Tuohy, creator of the world’s first preventive breast cancer vaccine, came in from the Cleveland Clinic to provide an update on his work.  Tuohy had good news:  he has made another important discovery with regard to his vaccine and expects to begin clinical trials next year.  Considering the obstacles he has faced in getting his vaccine funding, this is a threshold change – in the right direction.  If Tuohy’s vaccine is proven safe, it can then be tested to see if it is as effective in women as it is in mice.  While others are working with the best intentions to develop their own preventive breast cancer vaccines – and God speed, I say – Tuohy’s vaccine remains at the front of the line and is picking up steam.  I urge you to pay close attention as we take next steps, for this is the vaccine that is ready to be tested, will be tested, and for which we wait for scientifically sound test results before we hoot and holler our success.

The news is not anywhere near as good for Drs. Pogo, Melena, and Etkind:  they will soon run out of money completely.  The 100 year long journey to answer the question, Does a virus cause breast cancer in women? is on the brink of collapse.  Despite converging and compelling data published in peer-reviewed journals throughout the world, research on the virus (HMTV) thought to be involved in 40-75% of human breast cancer will come to a screeching halt.  Pogo will be forced to retire and her lab will close.

We are only one step away from proving that HMTV is a human infectious breast cancer virus.  It looks like it is involved in a large, significantly large portion of human breast cancer.  How can we possibly allow this research to die of starvation when we are so close and when so much depends on getting answers?

I have never been much of a fund-raiser.  It is not one of my talents.  But I’m just going to have to find a way to get Pogo and her team the money she needs to continue her work.  It would be a tragedy worthy of Shakespeare to fail to rescue this research, breath life back into it, and move ahead with all due speed.

With the grace of God the scientists working on the virus will soon meet with Tuohy on the ridge of progress where the rivers flow toward a sea of prevention and away from the arid plains of treatment.