Breast Cancer Vaccine

ktinkey

Hi Everyone,

I have had several requests to let you all know how my breast cancer vaccine trial is going. I am receiving two injections of Theratope vaccine every three months now and am doing great. The tumors have shrunk and the only side effects I experience are: redness and swelling at injection site (which has dimished significantly) and sometimes a rash at the base of my skull. Otherwise, everything is going well. Of course I can't speak for any other participants since I don't know them, but it is working for me. I am also on Femara. Also, the trial is not a blind study, everyone receives the vaccine. The study I am in is for Stage IV patients that have not received chemo, or not recently. I have elected not to receive chemo and so far, this decision has worked for me. I have my next CT on May 11th, so we will see if there has been any more progress towards shrinkage. The vaccine is supposed to boost your immune system to allow it to recognize cancer cells again and destroy them.

Hope this helps and thanks to all of you for asking about me. I read the posts a couple of times a week, but don't post myself very much.

God Bless,
Kathy

jbhoelzel

Kathy,

Thanks for the info. My understanding was that with a vaccine they take a small amount of YOUR cancer and create your own vaccine. Obvioulsy this is not what they did with you? I am curious to where your BC spread. It is in my lungs and I am currently getting chemo with the study drug Avastin.

Sounds like you are doing well. Best of luck with your scans. Mine come up in about four weeks. Once again, thanks for the info!

Joan

hummingbyrd

Thanks for the update Kathy. I'm so glad you are doing well! How long will the study go before they start reporting results. The one doc I spoke to at Baylor College of Medicine said, "The results weren't what they expected."
I say, I say, Hmmmm, what does that mean? Eh? LOL
God bless!
hummingbyrd

sevey

hummingbyrd said:

Thanks for the update Kathy. I'm so glad you are doing well! How long will the study go before they start reporting results. The one doc I spoke to at Baylor College of Medicine said, "The results weren't what they expected."
I say, I say, Hmmmm, what does that mean? Eh? LOL
God bless!
hummingbyrd

Hey Kathy,
I am so happy to see your post since I have been gone for a while myself dealing with this disease by having 2 more surgeries {brain & intestinal tumer}..... In the last 4 months there have been 12,000 new menbers.... Yet as soon as I saw Ktinky I knew it was you. I am so happy to hear that you are doing so well!!!!!!! I hope to hear from you more & how well you are doing!!! I know in my heart that the Lord is playing a big role in your recovery. I just love to read posts like this because it makes me feel so happy & I missed out on a lot while in the hospital. I haven't updated my profile, but my email address has changed.... It is { nativeind2@msn.com }. I had to change it when I moved & finally have my very own place!!!! I am back on the site now & it feels like I am home again. I also love to hear good news such as yours. You are "Truelly Blessed" and please keep us posted.
God Bless You
Love Cathy

ktinkey

jbhoelzel said:

Kathy,

Thanks for the info. My understanding was that with a vaccine they take a small amount of YOUR cancer and create your own vaccine. Obvioulsy this is not what they did with you? I am curious to where your BC spread. It is in my lungs and I am currently getting chemo with the study drug Avastin.

Sounds like you are doing well. Best of luck with your scans. Mine come up in about four weeks. Once again, thanks for the info!

Joan

Hi Joan,

I don't know why they call it a cancer vaccine, because it doesn't work like any vaccine I've ever heard of. The only thing it is supposed to do is allow your immune system to recognize cancer cells and kill them. For cancer to grow in our bodies our immune system has to be fooled into allowing it to grow, since it is normally attacked by other cells and killed. I guess that is why they call it a vaccine since a vaccine is supposed to make our immune system recognize various viruses (like chicken pox) and then kill them, but they do not use my cancer cells or any other. My cancer had spread to the lymph nodes in the center of my chest and lungs. The tumor in the center of my chest was 10 cm before it was discovered. But now it is down to 1.5 to 2 cm. That is a big difference.

God Bless,
Kathy

tlmac

jbhoelzel said:

Kathy,

Thanks for the info. My understanding was that with a vaccine they take a small amount of YOUR cancer and create your own vaccine. Obvioulsy this is not what they did with you? I am curious to where your BC spread. It is in my lungs and I am currently getting chemo with the study drug Avastin.

Sounds like you are doing well. Best of luck with your scans. Mine come up in about four weeks. Once again, thanks for the info!

Joan

Hi Joan, I read there are dozens of breast cancer vaccines being studied around the world. They're all in development or clinical trials. One focuses on a peptide found in 90% of all breast cancers. Another is looking into using a piece of each person's own tumor to develop antibodies specific to that cancer. Others are looking to boost specific cells in the immune system. They're concentrating on therapeutic vaccines right now, those that work on metastic disease or prevent it from spreading further. Preventative vaccines will follow. There are some that are showing great promise. I read everything I can get my hands on. A close friend just found out it's spread to her liver and lymph nodes. I pray daily that one of these in clinical trials will become available to her.
terri