The elusive breast cancer vaccine

A few years back I blogged about curing mice in pursuit of a breast cancer vaccine. Then three years ago, I blogged about progress in this vaccine plan. More than four years from my first post, here I can post about the first clinical trials on a breast cancer vaccine.

But before the celebratory parade starts, a few notes of caution. This vaccine will not work on all patients. It will only be effective on patients who's tumor produces mammaglobin-A.

And while progress has been made since the first mice curing trials, this trial was a small phase 1 clinical trial involving 14 metastatic women. These women did experience some benefit from it and the hope is that healthier women who's immune system is not as compromised after years of chemotherapy and hormonal treatment will show more benefit.

So we can call this progress but after waiting since June of 2010, we still need more research and more waiting.