NEW VACCINE FOR BREAST CANCER

New vaccine 'could prevent breast cancer tumours growing'

Life-saver: A jab to beat breast cancer is being developed by scientists

A jab to beat breast cancer is being developed by scientists.

In tests, not only did it completely eradicate a particularly fast-growing form of the disease, it also stopped tumours occurring in the first place.

Giving it to healthy young women could prevent more than 13,000 cases of breast cancer a year and save thousands of lives, the scientists claim.

Researcher Professor Wei-Zen Wei said: 'The greatest power of vaccination is protection against initial cancer development and that is our ultimate goal.'

The vaccine, which is still in the early stages of development, fights tumours with extra-high levels of the HER2 receptor protein on their surface.

Genes containing the blueprint for the protein are injected into the body, where they start making it in high quantities.

This triggers the immune system to attack existing tumours or equip itself to stop future ones.

The HER2-positive type of cancer accounts for up to 30 per cent of the 45,000 cases of breast cancer that occur in Britain each year.

Although it can be treated by drugs such as Herceptin, they do not work in all cases. Tumours can also become resistant to treatment.

In mice, the jab destroyed all tumours it was tested on --including those resistant to current drugs, the journal Cancer Research reports.

Professor Wei, of the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit in the U.S., said: 'This may be the answer for women with these tumours who become resistant to the current therapies.

'The vaccine could potentially eliminate the need to even use these therapies.