Institute Joins Effort To Cure Breast Cancer

September 10, 2009

Malaghan Institute Joins Effort To Cure Breast Cancer

The Malaghan Institute of Medical Research is to apply its considerable knowledge in developing clinical expertise in cancer immunotherapy to the treatment of breast cancer. This novel therapy uses vaccines to train a patient’s immune system to eradicate their cancer and promises to be an invaluable addition to our current breast cancer-fighting arsenal.

This initiative has been made possible by funding from the Breast Cancer Research Trust, New Zealand’s only organisation established solely to support research into breast cancer. The goal of the Trust is to find a cure for breast cancer by 2018.

The funding will be used by a team of scientists led by Prof Mike Berridge to develop a laboratory model of breast cancer that can be used to test different cancer vaccine strategies. The scientists will also develop a clinical model of the disease using tumour biopsies taken from breast cancer patients.

”This research is critical because New Zealand has the third highest death rate from breast cancer in the Western world, and new therapies are needed urgently if we are to turn this statistic around,” said Prof Berridge.

“Our knowledge about cancer and its origins has not been translated into effective cures,” he said.

“Despite vast investment in cancer drug development in recent years, improvements have been incremental, often measured in quality of life and months of life extension in particular cancers.”

Current treatments for breast cancer such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy are often associated with unpleasant side-effects, prompting the search for novel therapies that are gentler on the patient being treated. One such approach that holds great promise for cancer treatment is immunotherapy.

The aim of cancer immunotherapy is to mobilise the remarkable power and sensitivity of the immune system to seek out and destroy cancer cells in individual patients.

In this approach, immune system-activating dendritic cells are taken from cancer patients and used in combination with a biopsy of their tumour to create a vaccine. The vaccine is then injected back into the patient, where it stimulates a strong immune response that seeks out and kills the patient’s cancer cells.

Over the past decade the Malaghan Institute has developed a world-leading innovative dendritic cell cancer vaccine research platform that has led to its involvement in clinical trials for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, metastatic melanoma and glioblastoma multiforme.

The goal of this latest research is to provide the necessary “proof of principle” that will lead to Phase I/II clinical trials for breast cancer and the hope of an eventual cure for this devastating disease.

Tony Moffatt, CEO of the Breast Cancer Research Trust adds, “We are excited about this development and what it will contribute to our knowledge and understanding of breast cancer. Putting our money behind this initiative is a classic example of where our fundraising dollars are spent - we are always on the look-out for groundbreaking, radical research developments that will bring us to our goal faster, and this research is one such development.”

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