A new shot aimed at preventing breast cancer
While breast cancer is the most common cancer among women (and second leading to their death only after lung cancer) here in the United States, a research team at the Lerner Reaserch Institute in Cleveland OH, has “laid the groundwork for a breast cancer vaccine that may work much the same way as immunizations for mumps and measles,” according to lead researcher Dr. Vincent Tuohy.
Made using a protein known as alpha-lactabulmin, found in a wide variety of breast cancers, the protype vaccine is designed to prevent the disease from developing, rather than “thwart it” after it has already advanced, making it radically different than other anti-breast cancer vaccines currently being examined. It also differs from the others in the fact that it will be administered through injection, rather than intravenously.
Although it has only been tested in mice so far, Tuohy stated that they expect to begin clinical trials on humans as early as next year. However, he cautioned that a marketable vaccine may be at least “a decade away.” Still, he predicted that one day “it could be administered routinely to women starting at age 40.”
According to the American Cancer Society, more than 190,000 new cases of breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed this year across the U.S., resulting in an estimated 40,000 deaths.
