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FRIDAY, Aug. 22, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles Jonsson Cancer Center are seeking women volunteers with recurring breast cancer for a study to test an experimental immune system-boosting antibody.
The researchers hope the antibody may eventually be able to help women with metastatic breast cancer that hasn't responded to conventional chemotherapy.
This Phase I study will use an antibody called R1550 directed at the MUC1 protein, which is exposed on the surface of cancer cells in more than 90 percent of women with breast cancer.
In normal tissues, MUC1 is completely surrounded by carbohydrate molecules. In rapidly growing cancer cells, these carbohydrate molecules don't form correctly and the protein core of MUC1 is exposed.
This exposed protein core of MUC1 in cancer cells may offer a new target that's vulnerable to attack by antibodies.
Previous laboratory studies found the R1550 antibody binds tightly to MUC1 on cancer cells and activates immune system cells to kill the cancer.
"Our study is a real test of an antibody as immunotherapy for breast cancer. The way this antibody works seems to be dependent on its ability to engage the immune system after it binds to MUC1 on the tumor cells," principal investigator Dr. Mark Pegram, says in a news release.
"Sadly, women who have not responded to chemotherapy don't have too many other treatment options. We believe this antibody has the potential to be a less toxic alternative to conventional chemotherapy treatment for women with recurrent breast cancer," Pegram says.
For this study, the researchers will recruit women who have already been treated with the chemotherapy drugs Taxol or Taxotere and an anthracycline drug such as Adriamycin, but who have had a cancer relapse.
Anyone interested in volunteering for the study can phone 1-888-798-0719.
More information
Here's where you can learn more about breast cancer.
