Vaccines for Ovarian and Breast Cancer in Early Trials

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After surgery and chemotherapy, late-stage ovarian cancer usually recurs in 18 months to 20 months. When it does reappear, it is considered incurable and usually results in death, even with aggressive chemotherapy, Coukos noted.

In another presentation at the meeting, Dr. Leisha A. Emens, an assistant professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins University, discussed her work on a new therapeutic vaccine to fight breast cancer.

Of the six types of breast cancer, the vaccine is designed to treat HER-2/neu disease, which is particularly aggressive. The vaccine is designed to marshal the body's immune response to fight the cancer, she said.

Emens has also found that combining the vaccine with currently used chemotherapy drugs such as cyclophosphamide and doxorubicin increased the vaccine's effectiveness. In the current trial, women with advanced breast cancer are receiving combinations of vaccine and chemotherapy.

Emens said she's also working on a vaccine that, along with chemotherapy, would prevent blood vessels from feeding the cancer, essentially starving and killing the cancer cells.

"We have enrolled eight folks and have seen evidence for immunity," Emens said. "It is important that now that we are on the verge of developing immune-based and gene-therapy-based approaches for treating cancer to integrate these novel approaches into the standards we already have, so we can maintain the progress and improve it." she said. "By doing that, we will be able to cure breast cancer in our lifetime."

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women, other than skin cancer, and is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, after lung cancer. About 178,480 U.S. women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer this year, and about 40,460 will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.

The Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy says it's the only public charity in the United States that is dedicated exclusively to cancer gene therapy research, with 100 percent of funds raised by the group going directly to research.

More information

For more on ovarian cancer, visit the U.S. National Cancer Institute.