Vaccine-pembrolizumab combination shows promise for HER2-positive breast cancer

A clinical trial at Duke Cancer Institute (NC, USA) has investigated a HER2-positive breast cancer vaccine combination, as part of a two-drug immunotherapy strategy. The study, recently published in Clinical Cancer Research, targets the driver of this type of breast cancer – the HER2 protein.The findings demonstrated that vaccine-induced HER2-specific T cells were essential for immune responses and that it was more effective to stimulate the T cells in early tumor development. When combined with pembrolizumab, the vaccine was significantly enhanced. When pembrolizumab is used alone, limited benefit can be seen for HER2-positive breast cancer. “This study supports the development...