HER-2 Pulsed DC Vaccine to Prevent Recurrence of Invasive Breast Cancer Post Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy

Dendritic cell cancer vaccines combined with chemotherapy may increase complete responses giving breast cancer specific immune cells greater opportunity to function while the immune repertoire is being shifted by chemotherapy to anti-breast cancer response and offer the chance to test secondary prevention of breast cancer in high risk settings. There is a need to determine whether this ICAIT DC1 can activate CD4 and CD8 T cells prior to or in combination with chemotherapy with or without added trastuzumab.

This study began at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania and will be continued at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute.

Inclusion criteria

• Women ≥ 18 years.
• HER-2 expressing stage I - III breast cancer with residual disease in the breast or axillary nodes post-neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
• Women of childbearing age with a negative pregnancy serum test documented prior to enrollment.
• Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) Performance Status Score of 0 or 1.
• Women of childbearing potential must agree to use a medically acceptable form of birth control during their participation in the study.
• Have voluntarily signed a written Informed Consent in accordance with institutional policies after its contents have been fully explained to them.

Exclusion criteria

• Pregnant or lactating.
• Positive for HIV or hepatitis C at baseline by self report.
• Potential participants with coagulopathies, including thrombocytopenia with platelet count <75,000, INR > 1.5 and partial thromboplastin time > 50 sec.
• Potential participants with MUGA < 50% EF.
• Pre-existing medical illnesses or medications which might interfere with the study as determined by Principal Investigator (PI).