"Deregulation and inhibition of the immune system contributes to cancer development. Many therapeutic strategies aim to restimulate the immune system to recognize cancer cells and target them for destruction. Researchers from Moffitt Cancer Center report that a dendritic cell vaccine that targets the HER protein on breast cancer cells is safe and effectively stimulates the immune system leading to regression of earlystage breast cancer.  The HER protein is overexpressed in  of all breast cancer tumors and is associated with aggressive disease and poor prognosis. Researchers have previously shown that immune cells are less able to recognize and target cancer cells that express HER as breast cancer progresses into a more advanced and invasive stage. This suggests that strategies that can restimulate the immune system to recognize and target HER early during cancer development may be effective treatment options.  The researchers previously developed a vaccine that helps the immune system recognize the HER protein on breast cancer cells. Their approach involves creating the vaccine from immune cells called dendritic cells that are harvested from each individual patient to create a personalized vaccine.  In order to determine if the HERdendritic cell vaccine is safe and effective the researchers performed a clinical trial in  women who have HERexpressing earlystage breast cancer. The dendritic cell vaccines were prepared by isolating dendritic cells from each patients blood and exposing them to fragments of the HER protein. Patients were injected with a dose of their personal dendritic cell vaccine once a week for  weeks into either a lymph node the breast tumor or into both sites.  The researchers report that the dendritic cell vaccines were welltolerated and patients only experienced lowgrade toxicities. The most common adverse events were fatigue injection site reactions and chills. They also show that the vaccine was able to stimulate an immune response in the majority of the patients. Approximately  of evaluable patients had a detectable immune response in their peripheral blood andor in their sentinel lymph node wherein their cancer is most likely to spread to first. Importantly the immune responses among the patients were similar regardless of the route of vaccine administration.  The Moffitt researchers assessed the effectiveness of the vaccine by determining the percentage of patients who had detectable disease within surgical specimens after resection. The absence of disease is termed a pathological complete response pCR. They report that  patients achieved a pCR and patients who had early noninvasive disease called ductal carcinoma in situ DCIS achieved a higher rate of pCR than patients who had earlystage invasive disease. Interestingly patients who achieved a pCR had a higher immune response within their local sentinel lymph nodes.  These results suggest that vaccines are more effective in DCIS thereby warranting further evaluation in DCIS or other minimal disease settings and the local regional sentinel lymph node may serve as a more meaningful immunologic endpoint said Brian J. Czerniecki MD PhD Chair of the Department of Breast Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center.   The study was published in the December th online issue of Clinical Cancer Research and was supported by funds received from RCA PCA PenniesinAction http and the Henle Foundation.  About Moffitt Cancer Center  Moffitt is dedicated to one lifesaving mission to contribute to the prevention and cure of cancer. The Tampabased facility is one of only  National Cancer Institutedesignated Comprehensive Cancer Centers a distinction that recognizes Moffitts excellence in research clinical trials prevention and cancer control. Moffitt is the No.  cancer hospital in the nation and has been listed in U.S. News  World Report as one of the Best Hospitals for cancer care since . Moffitt devotes more than . million square feet to research and patient care. Moffitts expert nursing staff is recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing Center with Magnet status its highest distinction. With more than  team members Moffitt has an economic impact in the state of . billion. For more information call MOFFITT  visit MOFFITT.org httpMOFFITT.org and follow the momentum on Facebook Twitter and YouTube."