Product Background

Given the poor prognosis of advanced breast cancer, novel therapeutic approaches are needed to improve survival. Reliable, predictive laboratory assessments to monitor breast cancer progression or various specific conventional and experimental treatment regimens are not available. Given the fact that limits have been reached in optimizing schedules and dosing of currently available chemotherapeutic or hormonal agents (e.g. dose dense treatment), another avenue that has promise is immunotherapy. Although it is agreed that in principle, all cancers including breast cancers are amenable to immunotherapeutic approaches such as vaccination to stimulate autologous cell-mediated host immune responses, basic knowledge regarding strategies to achieve this goal is very limited. Dendritic cell (DC)-based breast cancer vaccines have received increasing attention and are currently being pursued by both the biotech/pharmaceutical industry as well as by academic researchers. The current clinical trial is proposing to investigate the feasibility of using the universal tumor antigen oncofetal antigen/immature laminin receptor protein (OFA/iLRP) in a dendritic cell based vaccine protocol. It is designed to examine the inherent immune response in breast cancer patients directed towards OFA/iLRP and whether this immune response could be amplified and modified through actively vaccinating using autologous OFA/iLRP-pulsed dendritic cells reinjected into cancer patients.