New vaccine may prevent breast cancer from reoccuring in some women

A new vaccine is being tested that could help prevent breast cancer from recurring in some women.

Kellie Baker was only 36 years old when doctors found 10 tumors growing in her left breast.

“There’s no history at all of breast cancer in my family and it was a shock,“ she said.

Baker underwent five rounds of chemotherapy, radiation and a double mastectomy, but since the cancer had already spread to her lymph nodes, doctors said her chance of recurrence was high. A frightening thought for the Virginia mother and wife. 

“A lot of it is, that if I could do anything to keep it from coming back, like you said, you feel very young, like you’re not anywhere near ready for things to be done,“ Baker said.

That’s when doctors recommended she come here ... to Sibley Hospital ... a testing site for a breast cancer vaccine that researchers hope can prevent tumors from coming back in patients like Baker.

“The vaccine is really for prevention so it sort of shifts the focus from treatment to prevention,“ Dr. Lisa McGrail said.

Oncologist Dr. Lisa McGrail says the vaccine is being test on women who have a high risk of recurrence and whose tumor cells have a specific protein ... that protein is found in 70 percent of breast cancer cases.

“The vaccine is given to stimulate the woman’s own immune system to recognize this protein as dangerous, to stimulate the system to fight it and to kill it,“  Dr. McGrail said.

The vaccine is given once a month, for six months ... minimal side effects have been reported ... including low-grade fever as well as inflammation and redness at the injection site. McGrail says it’s given to patients after they’re done with treatment ... and could be especially beneficial for younger women, like Kellie Baker.

“She’s very young and she wants to live a long life. And so this is something that we’re hoping will help give her immune system a chance in the future that, should this come back, that her immune system will recognize those cells and kill them,“ Dr. McGrail said.

“Whether it helps me or not, if it’s helped somehow, them find more research and more information and can maybe help people in the future, it would be a wonderful thing,“ Baker said.