Dr. Mittendorf predicted that the appropriate vaccine strategy will be dictated by disease stage.
“For the situation where we are trying to prevent the development of a cancer or for the situation where we’re administering the vaccine in the adjuvant setting as secondary prevention to prevent recurrence, the vaccine alone may be enough. However, for later-stage disease, it’s likely that we’ll need to use combination therapy,” she said.
Conference program chair Dr. Patrick I. Borgen of Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn said immunotherapy is one of the most exciting – and at times, most disappointing – fields within the breast cancer arena.
“In the last couple of years, we’ve seen – really for the first time – very, very, very significant strides being made in cancer immunology,” he said.
Dr. Mittendorf has received funding to her institution from Galena Biopharma and Antigen Express. She reported having no other disclosures. Dr. Borgen is a member of the speakers bureaus for Genomic Health and NanoString Technologies.