Immune Response in Patients Who Have Undergone Vaccine Therapy for Stage III or Stage IV Breast Cancer That Overexpresses HER2

Breast Cancer Clinical Trial

Official title: Development of HER-2/Neu (HER2) ICD Memory Immunity After Vaccination With a Plasmid Encoding HER2 ICD in Patients With Advanced Stage HER2 Overexpressing Breast and Ovarian Cancers

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

RATIONALE: Studying the immune response to a vaccine made from HER2/neu protein may help doctors plan better treatment for patients with breast cancer that overexpresses HER2.

PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying the immune response in patients who have undergone vaccine therapy for stage III or stage IV breast cancer that overexpresses HER2.

Clinical Trial Description

OBJECTIVES:

Primary

• Determine whether immunologic memory to the HER-2/neu (HER2) intracellular domain (ICD) protein has been generated by active immunization with a HER2 ICD plasmid-based vaccine by assessing the delayed-type hypersensitivity response to HER2 ICD peptides 6 months after vaccination in patients with HER2-overexpressing stage III or IV breast cancer.

Secondary

• Characterize the memory T-cell population and quantitate memory precursor frequency at 3, 6, and 12 months after active immunization using intracellular cytokine staining.

OUTLINE: This is an open-label study.

Patients receive HER2 intracellular domain (ICD) protein mixture intradermally and sterile water injected intradermally (as a negative control) at 6 months post-vaccination with pNGVL3-hICD vaccine. Vital signs and injection site will be monitored prior to skin test and at 60 minutes post-test. Patients return 48-72 hours after skin test for delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) measurements. The injection site is biopsied and examined by immunohistochemistry for infiltrating T-cell and antigen-presenting cell populations.

Blood is drawn at 3, 6, and 12 months post-vaccination for assessment of immune memory response. Blood draws are coordinated with parent study. Blood samples are examined by flow cytometry for the presence of memory markers including L-selectin, CD45 isoforms, cytokines, and CCR7.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 56 patients will be accrued for this study. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Breast Cancer
• Breast Neoplasms

• NCT number: NCT00363012
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: University of Washington
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: April 2006
• Completion date: March 2010