Current Treatment Options
The typically treatment for metastatic cancer is chemotherapy.
Many drugs have activity in breast cancer, achieving response rates
of 30-50%, however, response durations are generally short and on
the order of months. Combination regimens and high dose
chemotherapy have been tried, but with little additional benefit
for most patients.
HER2 positive breast cancer used to have a worse prognosis, but
now with advent of trastuzumab supplemented treatment, it now
has a better prognosis than the common forms of breast cancer.
Herceptin is used in combination with most chemotherapy agents, and
has boosted response rates to 50-70%, however, most patients will
relapse. Trastuzumab is a monoclonal antibody designed to target
and block the function of the HER-2 receptor which is positively
correlated to tumor growth.
Bavarian Nordic believes, that its vaccine
candidate, MVA-BN® HER2, if approved, could be a valuable
supplement to existing therapies in the treatment of HER2 breast
cancer patients.
