Attention, Please: We Have Begun Our Final Approach

By Dr. Kathleen T. Ruddy

The Breast Health and Healing Foundation (501c3) is the only breast cancer foundation whose goal is primary prevention of breast cancer.  Our mission is “To discover the specific causes of breast cancer and to use that knowledge to prevent the disease.”  Over the past five years, our objectives have been to educate women about the known and proven ways they can reduce their risk for breast cancer, support research on the viral cause of human breast cancer, support funding for the world’s first preventive breast cancer vaccine (aka, the “Pink Vaccine“) developed at the Cleveland Clinic in 2010, and insist that if breast cancer is preventable in ~30% of cases – which it is – that 30% of the money devoted to breast cancer research be spent trying to do so!

Of special interest at the moment is the important matter of securing funding for a Phase I study of the Pink Vaccine.  A Phase I study is designed to see if the Pink Vaccine is safe for use in women.  It has been proven safe and effective in three animals models studied in Professor Vincent Tuohy’s laboratory at the Cleveland Clinic – he created the vaccine and published his results in Nature Medicine in May 2010; now we must see if it is safe for use in women.  If it is safe, then we can see if it is effective in preventing breast cancer.  (Note:  it was 100% effective in preventing breast cancer in three animal models:  see the Nature Medicine paper for details.)

A word of explanation appears to be in order, as there is some confusion about what, exactly, a preventive breast cancer vaccine is and does.  Like the polio vaccine, a preventive breast cancer vaccine would, well, prevent breast cancer.   I have heard recently that some ‘experts’ have suggested to the public that the Pink Vaccine could only be used after a breast cancer was diagnosed, and only after the extent of disease is determined.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Think about this:  Who waits for a child to become sick, and then be diagnosed with polio, and then evaluated for extent of disease, before giving the child a polio vaccine?  No one.  As you well know, the polio vaccine is meant to be given before the child ever gets polio, so that the child never gets the disease.  Right?  Right.  The same is true for the Pink Vaccine.  So, if you happen to hear, or overhear, someone say that the Pink Vaccine cannot be used until a woman is first diagnosed with breast cancer and then evaluated for extent of disease, rest assured, the speaker (‘expert’ or not) is either sadly confused, or worse – intentionally trying to confuse the audience in order to promote some self-serving invention, treatment, trick, or gig along the party line, a race for the cure.

I’m for the Pure Cure - prevention.  The Pink Vaccine prevents breast cancer in animals, safely and effectively.  I believe we owe it to humanity, especially women, to see if it’s safe for use in humans.  Every day of further dithering delay and obstruction is intolerable given the suffering this disease inflicts on millions of women around the world.  If the Pink Vaccine is proven to be safe, then we will be able to see if it is effective in preventing, possibly even treating, breast cancer.

As I say, we have now begun our final approach toward the prevention of breast cancer.  Our goal at Breast Health and Healing is to land safely in a place where women no longer get breast cancer because they have a vaccine to prevent it.

Good-bye polio.  Good-bye small pox.  Good-bye breast cancer.  A vaccine.  A preventive breast cancer vaccine.

Seat backs up.  Tray tables locked.  Safety belts fastened tight and low across your laps.  We have begun our final approach.  Thank you for flying with us.  Come again.