The following picture and excerpt are from the Department of Defense American Forces Press:
Army Col. (Dr.) George E. Peoples explains how cancer vaccines help to combat breast cancer during an interview at San Antonio Military Medical Center. Peoples, director and principal investigator for the Cancer Vaccine Development Program, has helped to develop a vaccine that’s offering breast cancer survivors hope for a cancer-free future. DOD photo by Linda Hosek
"After more than a decade of research and testing, the cancer vaccine, dubbed E-75, soon will move on to its final phase of testing to earn Food and Drug Administration approval, said Army Col. (Dr.) George E. Peoples, director and principal investigator for the Cancer Vaccine Development Program at San Antonio Military Medical Center in Texas.
Peoples said he’s also intrigued by a successful trial they conducted on breast cancer survivors who express the HER2 protein at the highest levels, rather than the low to intermediate levels they focused on before. In this study, they combined their vaccine with the drug Herceptin.
They conducted a small trial with 60 women, Peoples said, and when they administered the vaccine and Herceptin together, the recurrence rate dropped to zero. “The preliminary data is very exciting,” he said. “But we need to wait and do larger trials.”
Word has spread of the cancer vaccine program’s successes and intriguing results. Military and civilian experts have approached Peoples wanting to take part in research that has such a potentially widespread impact. The idea of active, specific immunotherapy — engaging the body’s immune system to do the work of fighting the cancer — is an exciting and rapidly evolving area, Peoples explained.
Garnering this interest, Peoples has steadily built a worldwide network of military and civilian hospitals that can assist with clinical trials and research. The network includes just about every major military hospital alongside a civilian hospital in cities across the nation and overseas.
The partnership has reached Athens, Greece, and is about to extend into Malaysia. “We’re about to circle the globe,” he said.
Peoples attributed much of the program’s successes to this military-civilian network. “We’re very fortunate to have great partners,” he said.
He also praised the military men and women willing to take part in the trials. They enter into them knowing they may be part of the control group that doesn’t receive a potentially lifesaving vaccine. Despite that fact, he hasn’t seen a shortage of willing participants, Peoples said.
“The military is an ideal setting for clinical trials,” he said. Service members, retirees and family members have a strong sense of service, he noted. “They want to be involved and contribute to the research,” he added.
While they’re focusing on secondary cancer prevention, the ultimate goal, Peoples noted, is primary prevention, meaning cancer prevention among people with a predicted risk of cancer based on family history and genetic markers.
“Hopefully, sometime in my lifetime we’ll figure that out,” he said.
By Elaine Sanchez for American Forces Press Service"
